COLUMN: Carillon Flashback January 13, 2011 – Turbines harness Manitoba wind

Less than six months after touring the construction site of the St Joseph wind farm, Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger was back for the official launch of the first half dozen of the wind harnessing giants.

A cluster of about half a dozen turbines was activated by Premier Selinger with a simple click of a mouse in front of a mix of municipal and business partners, landowners and media.

Selinger noted the project perfectly complements hydro generation already in place in Manitoba and the wind farm is a huge story for both Canada and the United States.

RM of Montcalm Reeve Roger Vermette opened the ceremonies by saying that it had only taken nine months to go from breaking ground to starting up the first turbines.

“Pattern Energy and all the employees working on the project are number one in my books.”

Pattern Energy CEO Mike Garland, who flew in from San Francisco for the start-up, said he had been encouraged throughout the process and was glad to see both landowners and municipalities behind his company’s efforts.

After the official launching ceremonies, Selinger accompanied a large convoy to a nearby turbine, where everyone stared up in awe at one of the massive energy producing devices. Each tower reaches 80 metres in height and generates 2.3 megawatts. When completed, the 13-MW St Joseph site will generate enough energy to serve 50,000 homes.

As part of the wind farm project, a total of 60 2.3-megawatt turbines will dot a 125-square-kilometre area, most of them in the RM of Montcalm and the remainder in the adjacent Rhineland municipality. The area stretches west from Highway 75 to Highway 30 and from just north of Highway 14 all the way to Provincial Road 243.

A total of 225 workers were employed for the construction stage and there will be 15 permanent employees working at the site after completion.

The wind farm is described as the sixth largest in Canada, even though the project, which was in the planning stage for five years, was scaled back to less than half the original proposal of 300 MW.

Manitoba Hydro and Pattern Energy entered into a 27-year power purchase agreement. Hydro also agreed to contribute up to $260 million through a construction loan, repayable over 20 years, while Pattern Energy invested $95 million to cover the total estimated cost of $345 million.

Over the life of the project, Pattern Energy will pay local landowners royalties and contribute $44 million in local municipal taxes, with two-thirds going towards education and one-third to the municipalities.

Reeve Vermette described the wind farm as a good deal for the region, noting some 40 farmers and other landowners will receive royalty payments for the turbines on their property. All property owners whose land falls within the grid, regardless of the placement of turbines, are in line for a one-time payment of $195 per acre.

Pattern Energy has other wind farms in operation or under construction, one in California and one in Texas, as well as projects in development in eight states and four provinces.

The company, headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Toronto, Houston and San Diego, has projects totalling more than 520 megawatts in operation and under construction.

Manitoba’s first wind farm, located near St Leon, became operational five years ago and produces 100-MW of electricity, enough to service about 35,000 homes.

The St Leon site has enough wind for the turbines to generate some electricity about 90 percent of the time.

Wind forecasting methods are continually improving and over the long term, wind is quite predictable. Many turbines are operational 98 percent of the time, allowing the remaining two percent to be used for scheduled maintenance and repair or severe weather shutdowns.

– with files from Jennifer Stahn