Wind farm plan at risk of being blown away
Niagara Region is in danger of losing its long-planned wind farm and the more than half-million in taxpayer dollars already spent on the project.
Regional council voted in 2006 to partner with St. Catharines-based Rankin Construction on the building of a $25-million, five-turbine wind farm in Wainfleet. By 2007, Rankin had won a provincial contract that pays 11 cents for every kilowatt-hour of electricity produced and also a guaranteed connection to the area hydro grid.
But now, the partnership, Wind Energy Niagara, is about to give up its guaranteed grid connection to try and qualify for the more generous provincial contract offered under the new Green Energy Act.
“Now it’s a race, with the connection basically going to the guy who can build the windmills the fastest,” said Tom Rankin, president of the construction company. “It’s a gamble we’re taking … but it’s one we were sort of forced to take.”
Construction hasn’t started on the wind farm because of delays in local approvals and turbine delivery.
The new Green Energy Act offers small-scale wind projects a “feed-in tariff” of about 14 cents per kilowatt-hour. Wind Energy Niagara can’t access the sweeter deal, however, without giving up its grid connection priority.
Theoretically, that means another wind developer could squeeze out Niagara’s proposal by gaining permission to hook into the grid first, using up the remaining scarce capacity.
That is a risk, said regional finance commissioner John Bergsma, who told councillors at a corporate services committee meeting Thursday the Region has already spent $520,000 on the project. Rankin has contributed a similar amount.
But Bergsma said Niagara’s partnership is “well-positioned” in a free-for-all to win approval for a grid connection from the Ontario Power Authority.
“For one, we’re local,” Bergsma said, noting the province is trying to encourage community partnerships in green energy. “We’ve already done all the work and spent the money for this connection…. We think this project meets all the criteria the government has put forward.”
The local project could have gone ahead under its old contract.
But Rankin said the long delay in getting started, combined with the rising cost of materials, has made the 11- cents-per-kilowatt-hour deal unaffordable for his company and the Region.
He suggested that’s part of the reason the province is now offering a higher feed-in-tariff.
“They saw a lot of smaller projects weren’t going ahead,” Rankin said. “Now the price is right. It’s the regulations that are hurting us.”
Port Colborne Mayor Vance Badawey said he believes the province should be helping the local project move forward, not throwing up roadblocks.
“This is a bit of a sore spot for me,” he said. “The Region has invested a lot of money into this project. So has Rankin.”
Rankin said he’s still confident Ontario will acknowledge the benefits of a local community energy partnership. But he knows of at least one other major wind developer interested in a competing grid connection.
“It is frustrating to think we’ve been working at this for …. years and all of a sudden a newcomer could come in and take our capacity away,” he said.
By MATTHEW VAN DONGEN , STANDARD STAFF
The Standard
27 November 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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