May 3, 2011
Nova Scotia

Wind farm proposed for Wedgeport area

Carla Allen, www.novanewsnow.com 2 May 2011

A company that sees opportunity blowing in the wind is holding an open meeting at the Wedgeport Fire Department hall on the Black Pond Road on Wednesday, May 4, from 4 to 7 p.m.

Topics :
Anaia Global Renewable Energies , Nova Scotia Power , First Nations , Southern California , Wedgeport , Black Pond Road

4 to 7 p.m.

Rodrigo Moura, business development officer for Anaia Global Renewable Energies, says the company is looking at putting a wind farm in the Wedgeport area but there are many steps that have to be completed first.

“It won’t be a project until the company has a commercial agreement to sell the energy,” he said.

The bidding process with Nova Scotia Power would not take place until next year. Anaia Global must first identify landowners and reach an agreement with them, have municipal approval (already obtained), conduct an environmental assessment (underway) and establish that the wind resource is good in the region.

Moura says the company is in discussion with some landowners and has installed a meteorological test tower to measure the wind.

He could not say how many windmills would be installed.

“That will depend on the landowners, the wind resource and environmental and geological studies. It could be between 10 and 20… it could be eight, it could be 17.

“It’s easier to talk about megawatts,” he added. A production level of between 40 to 50 megawatts is estimated.

Lucrative winds have been proven by the success of the nearby Pubnico Wind Farm, established in 2007.

“They have had relatively good negotiations with the municipality. It shows that the municipality supports projects like this,” said Moura.

He says that two or three of the turbines may be located north of the Black Pond Road but most of them would be south, installed towards Comeau’s Hill.

Anaia Global is a young partnership of the Membertou Corporate Division and GrupoGuascor from the Basque Country of Spain.

In Canada, the initial focus is on Nova Scotia where the provincial government has unveiled its renewable electricity plan providing for community based feed-in tariffs to encourage development of renewable energy projects by First Nations and local municipalities.

In addition to smaller projects Anaia Global will also be taking advantage of bidding opportunities for utility scale proposals.

American marketing efforts will focus on the southwest where immense regions of sun-filled desert lands are considered key locations for solar energy developments. Anaia Global’s focus will be to develop solar energy farms with the native American communities in Arizona, New Mexico and southern California.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/05/03/wind-farm-proposed-for-wedgeport-area/