March 7, 2015
Nova Scotia

Wind turbines to be placed near Nickerson’s Pond

Brittany W. Verge | The Queens County Advance | Published on March 06, 2015 | www.theadvance.ca

LIVERPOOL – Stan Mason, president of Watts Wind hosted a community information session regarding the wind project on Feb. 24.

About 40 community members came to hear about the two wind turbine project from Mason and lead engineer Sebastian Manchester.

Watts Wind Energy Inc. is a Nova Scotian company and has built several wind turbines and wind farms across the province and beyond. Anyone who has driven to New Brunswick has seen their wind farm on the Tantramar marshes.

“We’ve been responsible for installing over 200 machines here in Atlantic Canada,” says Mason.

The project in Brooklyn is a 3.6-megawatt project through COMFIT, the Community Feed-in Tariff Program. It will provide energy for LightSail Energy’s project in the Renova Innovation Centre (former Bowater mill site). Danielle Fong, the founder of LightSail will be using space to try her new energy storage technology using wind power for the first time.

This is the first time the public has gotten a look at exactly where the 190 metre tall turbines will be. Work is already being started to clear the area and build a permanent weather station to help further determine placement of the turbines and discover weather patterns.

The company is looking for 25 investors to qualify for the COMFIT program. It doesn’t matter how much they invest but 25 people are required for this project. Municipalities are also able to invest in the project.

Mason couldn’t say how many people will be employed in the long run for this project because it may turn into something bigger later.

They will need several engineers to work both at the their site in the Renova Innovation Centre and doing maintenance on the two turbines.

The hope is to have the turbines up and running by the end of summer in 2016, at which point, the LightSail portion of the project may also begin.

The LightSail project will be using energy from the turbines as well as steam from the biomass plant that once powered the Bowater Mersey paper mill.

The turbines will be built mostly in Canada, with only one component being built in Florida. Each turbine will stand around 190 metres tall.

The crowd that was present mostly asked about investing. To learn more about Watts Wind go to wattswind.com