Waiting On Windmills

Times Contributor

 

In 2007, Greengate Power Corporation approached landowners in the Wintering Hills area of Wheatland County about installing windmills to mine energy. The land is currently cultivated and grazing land.  

On Jan. 10 representatives appeared at the Wheatland County Municipal Planning meeting to update council on the project progress.

“We have renamed the project the Wheatland project, and it remains a high priority for Greengate,” said Dan Tocher, Vice President of Stakeholder Relations for Greengate.

The windmills will sit on 28,000 acres of private land, located in Central Alberta, 30 kilometres southeast of the Town of Drumheller, and will produce 150mw of power.  

Tocher emphasized that the project has generated positive feedback from both stakeholders and landowners.  Landowners have negotiated leases, supplemented by a royalty payment incentive, and those leases come up for review this year.  All current leases remain maintained and the collection of wind and environmental data is ongoing. 

However, there have been some delays to the project.

Tocher said investors finance the company and the downturn in the markets has had an impact on the company but they are weathering the storm.  The company recently sold their Halkirk holding and reinvested it in the Black Spring Ridge project that is located in Vulcan County. Access to transmission lines was available and it made the financial sense. 

Suncor has installed an adjacent windmill project to the Wheatland site and is utilizing a majority of the transmission tower’s capabilities. 

“Upgrades to the grid are a critical component to our industry, but we are hopeful for a good outcome,” said Tocher, who anticipates the project to be up and running by 2014.

Deputy Reeve Ben Armstrong said landowners were asking questions about the site’s progress. Tocher committed to contacting leaseholders within two months.