Canada’s first offshore wind facility
Canadian wind power developer Windstream Energy is making headway with Canada’s first offshore wind site. The 300-MW project is planned to be located off the southwest shore of Wolfe Island in eastern Lake Ontario. Siemens has been selected to supply the turbines.
“Windstream Energy has signed a Preferred Supplier Agreement (PSA) with Siemens Canada for 130 turbines,” says Siemens spokesperson Meike Wulfers. By selecting Siemens, the wind power project developer building Canada’s first offshore wind facility is ensuring that the Wolfe Island Shoals project will provide more than 50 percent Ontario content. The turbine blades will be manufactured at Siemens’ renewable energy plant located in Tillsonburg, Ontario.
In a press release, Ian Baines, President of Windstream Energy, stated that the project will create more than 1,900 jobs for the first five years of development and 175 jobs after construction. A moratorium on construction issued by the Ottawa government is still holding up the project, but Baines told Renewables International that, “We’ll go forward with the project as soon as we get the green light.” Originally the facility was to go online in 2016, but it’s now unlikely that the developer will be able to adhere to that timetable.
According to the company, Windstream holds the only offshore wind power feed-in tariff (FIT) contract in Ontario Province, which was awarded by the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) in May 2010. Baines, however, pointed out that, “no other company submitted a bid for such a contract.” (Regine Krüger / Deborah Friedman)
