Calgary-based Greengate Power Corporation is quickly becoming a Canadian wind developing power house. The company claims it has 1,550 MW of wind energy projects under development that span approximately 200,000 acres in its home province of Alberta.
A large part of its strategy to rapidly grow its wind generating capacity is to only develop projects in areas where transmission services are already in place. By basing projects "in transmission rich areas of Alberta," Greengate mitigates one of the biggest challenges facing wind energy developers -- transferring electricity from the wind farms to the cities. Taking this approach has helped the company develop what is expected to be Canada's largest wind farm.
Located on 60,000 acres in Southern Alberta, just north of the city of Lethbridge, the Blackspring Ridge Wind project will generate some 600 MW of wind power. The project is split into two 300 MW phases, Blackspring Ridge I and II.
Inching closer to meeting the first phase's 2013 target completion date, Greengate announced [pdf] it has selected Vestas to provide the wind turbines for Blackspring Ridge I. According to Greengate Vestas will supply 166 of its V90-1.8 MW wind turbines to Blackspring Ridge I beginning in the third quarter of 2012. However, Vestas released a statement on its website saying that, although negotiations with Greeengate are ongoing, it has not recieved an official, confirmed order from the company.
Greengate President and CEO Dan Balaban is conifident that Blackspring Ridge I will employ Vestas wind turbines: "Vestas is a world-class turbine manufacturer, and we are pleased to be working with them on this exciting project," said Balaban.
He added, "The V90-1.8 MW wind turbine is ideally suited for Blackspring Ridge I, and we expect this to result in the solid financial performance of this project."
Image Credit: schmeeve via Flickr
Joseph Baker is a freelance writer living in Vancouver BC. His areas of focus include renewable energy, sustainability and climate change.
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