Saint John Energy has announced its new partner in the city’s first-ever wind energy project.
A 10-turbine wind farm will be built at the Spruce Lake Industrial Park by Natural Forces, a privately-owned renewable energy developer.
Andy MacCallum, VP of Development at Natural Forces, says not only will this lower greenhouse gas emissions but also lower the cost of power for customers.
“It’s cheaper than coal, cheaper than gas, cheaper than nuclear. That’s one of the reasons why Saint John Energy is doing this,” he said.
“The latest publicly available data would be coming out of Saskatchewan, those prices are three and a half cents per kilowatt hour. What are Saint John residents paying for their electricity? It’s over 10 cents,” he said.
MacCallum also says the environmental benefits are huge.
“I think it’s about 40,000 tonnes of CO2 that we will displace over the lifetime of the wind farm. That’s a huge benefit,” he said.
Natural Forces will invest $60 million to build the turbines, which will generate up to 42MW of renewable energy. MacCallum says they are hoping to raise at least $6 million of this through community investment.
Ray Robinson, CEO of Saint John Energy, says the Burchill Wind Farm is a part of the utility’s Smart Energy project, which will modernize the electricity grid while investing in new and important energy sources.
“Our industry is evolving very quickly. Technological advancements are very rapid right now, and we’re going down these roads and all these projects to stay ahead of the curve and be able to demonstrate different capabilities and operate the grid in a much different way,” he said.
I’m at the Hilton this morning where Saint John Energy is set to announce its much awaited wind energy project. The utility has been dedicated to finding green, renewable energy sources through its Smart Energy project. pic.twitter.com/Afv8153Rjt
— Danielle McCreadie (@danimccreadie) September 4, 2019
MacCallum says the wind turbines will be able to provide anywhere from 16 per cent of the grid’s power up to 100 per cent, depending on weather and timing.
The project is also expected to employ around 100 workers during construction, bringing in much needed economic stimulation to the city.
MacCallum explains that Natural Forces will design, build, own, and operate the wind farm, while Saint John Energy will buy the energy and distribute it to its customers, as outlined in the Electricity Act.
There will also be a small substation built to transfer the energy from the turbines to the grid.
Robinson says they hope the project will get the province to loosen legislation around the utility.
“Currently legislation prohibits Saint John Energy from owning any generation. What we would like so far as enabling legislation is the ability to own generation, and one project that would be on our radar would be a community solar farm,” he said.
The Burchill Wind Project is expected to be completed by 2022.
