Friday, November 20, 2009

Emera makes turbine offer

Firm wants 50 per cent of wind park

Nova Scotia Power’s parent company has made an offer to buy a stake in a proposed 20-turbine wind farm in Digby Neck.

Emera Inc. of Halifax has made an undisclosed offer to buy the 50 per cent interest held by Scotian Windfields’ partner SkyPower Corp., which entered into creditor protection when owner Lehman Brothers went bankrupt.

"This presents an opportunity for us as a company to possibly move a project forward and we think it’s a viable project and we would like to see that happen," Emera spokeswoman Sasha Irving said Thursday.

Documents filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice shows a numbered company owned by Emera put the offer in to buy the assets in November and the deal is expected to be finalized Nov. 30.

Earlier this year, Nova Scotia Power purchased the Nuttby Mountain wind farm project in Colchester County from EarthFirst Inc. of Calgary. The project had stalled due to the global credit crisis and NSP’s proposal to develop it is currently before government regulators for approval.

The utility, which is a regula-ted monopoly, is asking the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board to approve the $120-million wind project by Dec. 1.

Ms. Irving said it was easier for Emera to make the purchase than Nova Scotia Power, which would require regulatory approval.

"Emera has more flexibility to move quickly in this type of situation . . . (and) we made the decision that we thought it was best that Emera move forward with this one," she said.

Development costs on the Digby wind project were approximately $19.1 million at the time of SkyPower’s filing for creditor protection in August.

The company had also made purchase deposit payments of approximately US$16.2 million to General Electric for the 20 wind turbines.

The total commitment under the GE contract was approximately US$41.1 million, according to court documents.

Barry Zwicker, president and CEO of Scotian Windfields, said the project can now move forward and expects construction to begin in January and have the turbines generating electricity by November 2010.

"We’ve got a partner that is a solid company, and I don’t think there is any fear of Emera going into any creditor protection or bankruptcy process. From our perspective we’re looking forward to working with them and getting the project complete," said Mr. Zwicker Thursday.

The 30-megawatt development has a purchase power agreement, signed in May 2008, with Nova Scotia Power. Thirty megawatts of electricity can power 10,000 homes.

The Digby wind park is key for the utility to meet the government’s renewable energy target of generating 25 per cent of electricity from green sources by 2015.


http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1153686.html

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Wind power health effects queried by municipal group

Last Updated: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 | 12:13 PM AT

CBC News

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities is asking Ottawa to fund more scientific research into the potential health effects of wind turbines.

The organization has asked the government to focus on two areas: low-frequency noise and electrical disturbances from industrial-scale wind developments. The issue was raised in September by three municipalities from Ontario at a national board of directors meeting.

"It's to ask the federal minister of health to look in to see if everything is OK for health and safety," federation president Basil Stewart told CBC News on Tuesday.

Stewart recently oversaw the approval of four wind turbines in his hometown of Summerside, P.E.I., which are expected to start producing power before the end of the month.

"I know we in Summerside followed all the provincial and federal regulations and guidelines," he said.

"FCM hasn't take a position on it because there are communities across the country for it and against it."

Stewart said there's been no word from Ottawa whether it will pay for new research into these areas.


http://www.cbc.ca/canada/prince-edward-island/story/2009/11/18/pei-wind-health-municipalities-584.html

Emera division applies to buy Digby wind energy project

It looks as if Nova Scotia Power is buying further into the wind energy business.

It already owns the Nuttby project and has now applied to the Ontario Supreme Court of Justice to purchase the Digby project.

Court file number 09-8321-00CL is a motion that includes:

"approving the sale of SkyPower's to 3240384 Nova Scotia Limited, a subsidiar
of Emera Incorporated ("Emera") of SkyPower"s interest in the capital stock of Scotian Windfie1d Parners Corp. and certin of its wind project assets (the "Emera Transaction")"

it goes on ...

"THE GROUNDS FOR THE MOTION are as follows:
2. The Applicant is a renewable energy developer in Canada. It is an industr leader with
extensive expertise in developing large-scale wind, solar and other renewable energy
power projects;
3. Pursuant to the Initial CCAA Order, the Applicant was granted protection pursuant to the
Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (the "CCAA") and an initial stay of proceedings
to and including September 1 1, 2009, in respect of the Applicant and certain other
parties, is currently in effect. The stay of proceedings has been extended from time to
time to November 30, 2009;
4. On August 21, 2009, the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware granted
SkyPower an Order for provisional relief
under Chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
A final Order under Chapter 15 was granted on September 15,20095. Pursuant to an Order of this Honourable Court dated August 25,2009, the Applicant was
authorized to ru a sale process in respect of all of its assets, property and undertakng;
6. The sale process is ongoing. On October 27, 2009, this Honourable Court approved a
sale in respect of SkyPower's solar business to an affiliate of CIM Group, SkyPower's
debtor-in-possession lender. The parties are working to close the transaction;
7. As par of the sale process, SkyPower has negotiated the terms of two additional
transactions - the Emera Transaction and the Elemental Transaction;
8. KPMG Inc., as monitor of SkyPower (the "Monitor"), and SkyPower's senior secured
lenders support the Emera Transaction and the Elemental Transaction;
9. The Applicant believes the transactions to be in the best interests of the Applicant and its
stakeholders;
10. the provisions of the CCAA;
11. Rules 2.03,3.02, 16 and 37 of the Rules of Civil Procedure (Ontario); and
12. such further and other grounds as counsel may advise and this Honourable Court may
permit."

Strange the media hasn't touched this story yet.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Residents to meet with minister over wind farm

Group in Digby Neck worried about health effects of living close to turbines

Six Digby Neck residents will visit Environment Minister Sterling Belliveau Wednesday in Halifax to ask a few questions about a planned wind turbine park.

"We’re trying to find out his reasoning for approving this turbine site in the first place," Evelyn Hayden said Monday.

"We’re just a group of concerned citizens that are trying to protect the health of everybody down here."

A 30-megawatt development consisting of 20 turbines is planned for Digby Neck by Skypower Corp. of Toronto and Scotian Windfields of Dartmouth. Each unit will generate 1.5 megawatts of electricity.

Ms. Hayden said one of the turbines may be as close as 600 metres to her home. She said she’s worried about adverse health effects to people who live too close to big wind turbines, and she is not alone.

Basil Stewart, the mayor of Summerside, P.E.I., has asked federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq to look into the matter.

As president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Mr. Stewart cited a resolution asking Ottawa to study the potential health risks of wind turbines.

Digby municipal council was expected to discuss that resolution Monday evening.

A wind bylaw for the Municipality of Digby has been in the works since last year and is the only planning document in the municipality.

But municipal councillors decided last June to delay the passing of the plan to regulate wind turbines.

Some senior executives of the proponents spoke at a public planning hearing in council chambers, urging councillors to kill a draft version of the bylaw.

Corey Basel, vice-president of Skypower Corp., said his company did not support passing the bylaw in its present form, which he said was ambiguous.

"Any ambiguity in a bylaw could certainly affect future development. . . . It can signal to outside investors, banks or developers that there is not an opportunity for investment or development in a community," said Mr. Basel at the time.

In the end, councillors voted to table the draft planning strategy and bylaw until they could discuss it further. The bylaw was to be addressed again during Monday evening’s meeting.

Ms. Hayden had earlier asked Justice Minister Ross Landry to issue a stop order because of alleged health risks.

A source from the Justice Department wrote back to tell her the minister could not interfere with the decision to allow the wind turbines.

"We’re not going to give up," said Ms. Hayden.

Her group will also meet Wednesday with Liberal environment and energy critic Andrew Younger.

Among the questions the group has is why the province has not established some kind of guideline or minimum setback for municipalities that don’t have rural zoning restrictions pertaining to wind turbines.


http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1153135.html

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Glen Dhu project gets funding

Spanish company shows interest in Shear Wind
Last updated at 11:01 PM on 16/10/09
The News, New Glasgow

Merigomish – The company that wants to construct a windfarm in the Merigomish area may receive a financial boost that will allow them to proceed with the project.

It was announced this week that renewable energy businessman Manuel Jove, president of Spanish company Inveravante, has signed a proposal with Halifax-based Shear Wind Inc. to buy 62 per cent of the company for $27 million.

The deal still requires approval from a majority of Shear Wind shareholders and must pass other regulatory hurdles before it closes on Oct. 30.

Ian Tillard, Chief Operating Officer for Shear Wind, says the company was hit hard by the recession last year and has since been shopping around for investors.

“It’s been a pretty bleak world for people in the wind business since the economic turmoil hit a year ago,” Tillard said. “We’ve spent our time on the Merigomish project doing pre-construction, environmental studies, the on the ground stuff, all the while looking for investors for our projects.”

Inveravante is “by far the best fit” for Shear Wind, Tillard said. This marks the Spanish company’s first investment in North America, an area it has been looking to expand into.
“This is a company that brings good experience with them and really brings a different outlook, both financially and in terms of technology,” said Tillard.

The Spanish utility conglomerate will pay nearly 28 cents a share for almost 96,500,000 shares of Shear Wind stock that will be issued to the Inveravante subsidiary Genera Avante Holdings Canada Inc.

Subject to regulatory approval, Shear Wind will pay a finder’s fee of $1.75 million to STS Capital Partners.

Tillard says a decision on where the capital investment will be used will be made in the near future. Founded in 2005, Shear Wind has projects in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Alberta and will assess all of its developments before deciding where to put the infusion of funds.

But Tillard says the company remains committed to hitting the targets of its deal for the proposed $150 million wind turbine park near Merigomish. Shear Wind signed a deal with Nova Scotia Power last year to sell 60 megawatts of electricity to the utility – enough to power 17,500 homes – beginning late this year. That has since been delayed to 2011.

The project must be in place by March 2011 in order to take advantage of federal incentives for wind energy.

http://www.ngnews.ca/index.cfm?sid=295335&sc=49

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Questions still unanswered on wind farm project


To the editor,

Shear Wind Inc. has finally made a public announcement about the true size of their Glen Dhu wind power plant. Phase 1 and 2 combined would see as many as 100 turbines spread over 10,000 acres. However, the cumulative impacts of both phases were never considered by the Department of Environment despite the fact that government reviewers pointed out this requirement.

Shear Wind’s own Vascular Plant Study revealed that five wind turbines in phase 1 were located entirely within old growth forest of heritage value and should be relocated, yet the Department of Environment never required it.

Shear Wind’s Avian Study pointed out that bald eagles are “of particular concern” and that “serious consideration should be given to setting back wind turbines from steeply inclined ridges where updrafts are most conducive for soaring….” Instead, Shear Wind moved the turbines from the highlands to the scarp face and with the Department of Environment’s approval of this project they have essentially granted Shear Wind a permit to violate both provincial and federal law, allowing them to kill and injure bald eagles.

Shear Wind’s bat study was conducted eight kilometres south of the project site with Anabat II detectors deployed at ground level. Two detectors were deployed for one week, with one detector vandalized the day it was deployed. No real mortality predictions could be made for this project from this study, yet the Department of Environment never required a new bat study.

Lord David Howell, former Secretary of State for Energy in Margaret Thatcher’s government, stated, “Extensive wind farm developments will be seen in due course to have taken public opinion for a colossal ride.” It would appear that the Department of Environment, in turning a blind eye to their own responsibilities under the Nova Scotia Environment Act and the Species at Risk Act, are taking Nova Scotian’s on that colossal ride.

Susan Overmyer, Media Relations
Eco Awareness Society
Bailey’s Brook

http://www.ngnews.ca/index.cfm?sid=302902&sc=51

Thursday, November 12, 2009

HRM holds first of nine meetings asking for input on location of turbines

Wind opinions sought



IT’S THE latest in the NIMBY syndrome.

The Halifax Regional Municipality wants to get the public’s feedback on how far wind turbines must be located from homes, roadways and property lines.

The first of nine public meetings was held Monday night at Brookside Junior High School in Prospect.

About 15 vocal residents turned out to give their opinion on the proposed regulations for locating large- and small-scale wind turbines around the area.

Shayne Vipond, HRM senior planner, said the opinions were varied, with most people wanting the benefits of green energy but not in their backyard.

Most people want a conservative approach to setting guidelines for allowing turbines near a residence but fully endorsed the use of green power, he said.

He said this is "pretty typical" of the response by communities.

"What we’re going to be doing is talking about the direction that we’re looking at now for the actual siting regulations. These are regulations that are open for debate. That’s the purpose of bringing it forward to the community," said Mr. Vipond.

The proposed bylaws, which will go before municipal council next spring, have been several years in the making.

Council initiated a planning process for wind power almost three years ago and held public consultations in 2007.

"The difference between this community consultation effort and the one we did in 2007, we’re actually coming forward with specific direction. Last time, we were looking to get general impressions from the public. At that time, the public certainly weren’t as informed and it wasn’t as front and centre as it is now and it’s gaining momentum," said Mr. Vipond.

He said erecting wind turbines in HRM is being driven by the need to reduce fossil fuel consumption, which accounts for almost 80 per cent of power generation in Nova Scotia.

HRM is proposing bylaws for large-scale turbines with a minimum distance of 500 metres from the base of the turbine to the nearest building. Small-scale turbines must be set back 180 metres from a residence, hospital, hotel, motel or convention centre.

Another classification for a small-scale turbine located in a business park or commercial campus has a setback distance of 30 metres.

Regional council has approved test sites for wind turbines near the Otter Lake garbage dump, in Upper Sackville near the old landfill site, at watersheds near Lake Major and Tomahawk and Pockwock lakes, and in an area near St. Margarets Bay.

"We hope to present to the public and get some feedback," he said.

There has been some opposition to large-scale wind projects in areas like Yarmouth County, where residents living near wind farms have complained about noise. To address that and other concerns, the province partnered with the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities to do a $45,000 study to develop wind turbine bylaws and policies last year.

Mr. Vipond said staff used "best practices" guidelines as recommended by this study but did not include sound level guidelines.

"We’re not looking to regulate noise. We feel that by providing adequate distance separation, noise is dealt with by default," he said.

"There is another layer of regulation through the provincial environmental assessment that deals with sound. What we’re trying not to do is duplicate the environmental assessment process because we feel that is an undue burden to potential wind energy developers at the small and large scales."

Debbie Neilson, sustainability co-ordinator at the UNSM, said the public consultation process HRM is currently undertaking allows a community to be involved and also provides clarity for wind turbine developers.

One of the biggest challenges facing developers is getting the public onside, said Ms. Neilson.

The public meetings will be held across HRM in November, December and January, and the locations can be found on the HRM website, halifax.ca.


http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1152241.html

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Ontario: Property owners could be left carrying the can

Property owners signing leases with wind energy developers should be looking closely at the legalese within these leases.


Saturday:

Communications, including the comment submitted below, indicate that the author may have misrepresented some facts. The liens are against the leaseholds arrangements with the property owners not the property freeholds.

However, a story from allnovascotia.com published yesterday states that a SkyPower creditor, The Terrain Group, filed a statement of claim that could result in similar liens. This relates to the SkyPower and Windfields project in Gullivers Cove, Digby County. The companies hope that a pending third party buyer will alleviate their financial woes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Land locked

Wellington Times

Prince Edward County, Ontario

Rick Conroy

Wednesday, November 11, 2009


Related: Stantec Construction Property Liens list

About 150 properties that make up the Byran wind energy project, part of the failed Skypower Corporation in the northeast corner of Prince Edward County, have had construction liens placed upon their land and registered on title by a creditor to whom Skypower owes a quarter million dollars. Construction liens are legal claims on a project to ensure a builder, tradesperson or consultant gets paid for his or her work.

Worse for the property owners, these construction liens have been perfected through a special court order that was granted last Thursday.

At best this means the property owners will be limited, until the liens are discharged, as to what they can do with their encumbered property. It may be difficult or impossible to refinance mortgages, borrow money using the land as collateral, finance new buildings on the property or even purchase seed and fertilizer for the property as long as the liens remain in place.

At worst the landowners could be on the hook to pay Skypower’s creditor, Jacques Whitford Stantec, the $265,000 it says it is owed by Skypower.

The liens offer a cautionary lesson to those who choose to enter land agreements with developers. But, perhaps the most surprising information to come to light in court docuemnts obtained by the Times is that one of the landowner that appears to be caught up in the bankruptcy of Skypower is the County of Prince Edward. Three properties registered to the municipality are included in the list of properties covered by the construction liens.

The apparent participation of the County in Skypower’s project raises many serious questions: What deal was made between the municipality and Skypower? Why wasn’t this arrangement made public? Who knew about this? When did they know it? What were the financial terms? Are there other deals with other wind energy developers?

And if the municipality is a stakeholder in the Byran project, even in a marginal way, how can it be objective as to the appropriateness of industrial wind energy development in this County? Most County residents believed their municipality to be acting in good faith when it a held a public meeting into wind energy development at the end of September.

Councillor Peter Mertens said he has no knowledge that any municipal property had been optioned, leased or sold to Skypower or to any wind developer. Mayor Leo Finnegan was unavailable for comment. Chief Administrative Officer Dick Shannon did not respond to the Times inquiries by deadline.

THE PROMISE Skypower first came to local prominence in the summer of 2007. They had been busy for months earlier acquiring options and leases on land primarily north of Picton up to Big Island, as well as around Milford. Until then, much of the wind energy interest had been focused in South Marysburgh. But Skypower’s strategy was to attempt to lock up the electricity transmission capacity by locating close to the largest transmission station in the County. Skypower had high-powered partners including an investment arm of Lehman Brothers, a large U.S. investment bank. When Lehman’s collapsed last fall, Skypower had not only lost a critical financial backer. The subsequent freeze on credit worldwide left the Toronto wind energy prospector in the same boat as its competitors—no capital, no credit but burning cash at a rapid rate.

THE FAILURE Pretending otherwise, Skypower continued to contract services from Jacques Whitford, an engineering consultancy that would soon merge with Edmonton-based Stantec, to advance the status of the Byran project in Prince Edward County. It had hoped to get the project to such a state of preparedness that it could either be sold or possibly financed.

So it was that on Aug. 11, Skypower public relations representatives were in Picton pitching their project to the local community. They gave no hint as to the company’s troubles. Meanwhile, back in Toronto, Skypower management was busy preparing documents to file for creditor protection. The next morning a court granted them an initial order putting creditors on hold until the business could be refinanced or sold.

}THE FALLOUT

Since then a sales process has been underway, dismantling the company into bits and pieces. Skypower’s half-share of the Stone Mills solar array north of Napanee has been sold to a real estate developer, CIM Group, based in Los Angeles.

Twenty-two bids were received for various parts of Skypower’s development business including its leases and options that comprise the Byran project. But none of the bids received are for all of Skypower’s development projects.

So in September Jacques Whitford Stantec registered construction liens against Skypower’s interest in 150 properties in Prince Edward County to ensure it will get paid.

Last week those liens were perfected to establish its priority claim. This is required to validate and extend the claim. Aperfected lien is valid against bona fide purchasers of property, and even against a trustee in bankruptcy.

In effect, these manoeuvres make the purchase price for Skypower’s Byran project higher than it might fetch otherwise. This raises the prospect that Jacques Whitford Stantec may end up as owners of the County wind energy prospect.

Most troubling for landowners is that they may not know their land is encumbered with a lien until they try to sell part or all of it, or erect a new building or use it for collateral on a loan. Even renewing a mortgage may be made more complicated by the presence of the lien. At least one landowner with an agreement with Skypower was unaware of the lien on his property until contacted by the Times last week. Planning Commissioner Gerry Murphy was also unaware of the liens placed on County properties.

If you suspect your land may be encumbered by a Jacques Whitford Stantec lien you can check your property title at the Land Registry Office, 1 Pitt Street, Picton. Online you may visit the Wellington Times website www.wellingtontimes.ca for a link to the list of Stantec Construction Lien Properties.

http://wellingtontimes.ca/?p=502

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Wind farm plan criticized

Critics say ratepayers will be on hook for cost overruns at Colchester County site




Government regulators should reject Nova Scotia Power’s proposal to construct a $120-million wind farm in Colchester County, according to evidence filed with the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board.

Electricity customers could face higher power bills if the project runs into cost overruns or the 22 wind turbines at Nuttby Mountain don’t produce enough power, warns Nova Scotia’s consumer advocate on electricity in a brief filed Tuesday with the board.

"The risk of the investment is on the shoulders of the ratepayers," John Merrick states. "If it turns out that the Nuttby project is inefficient or expensive to maintain, it is the ratepayers who will pay through rates.

"The board cannot depend on NSPI to make decisions beneficial to ratepayers in this matter," he says in the brief.

In September, NSP asked its regulator to approve by Dec. 1 the utility’s application to construct and develop the Nuttby Mountain wind farm.

Located about 20 kilometres north of Truro, the project would include purchasing and erecting the turbines and constructing a new substation and transmission lines.

Before the board makes a decision on the wind farm application, it requested written questions, comments and evidence from interested parties. The deadline for evidence was Tuesday.

Mr. Merrick said before the board makes a decision it must be satisfied this is a "prudent" investment for NSP’s residential customers.

"It is not the role of the board to micromanage or second-guess management of NSP, but ratepayers need to have assurance that they are required to pay for those expenses and investments that do meet a prudence standard."

A group of Nova Scotia businesses say there are "too many unknowns" at this stage for the board to give the green light to this project.

"NSPI is seeking the board’s sanction for it to speculate presumably on behalf of and at the risk of its customers by investing in wind generation," wrote the group’s lawyer, Nancy Rubin.

Ms. Rubin says the Avon Group is concerned about the financial risks to customers if Nuttby Mountain does not produce as much electricity as proposed.

A renewable energy company is recommending the board reject NSP’s application.

Cape Breton Explorations Ltd. president Luciano Lisi argues if NSP is certain about its forecasts, then it should ask its shareholders to take the risk of developing the wind project.

"The numbers NSPI uses in their estimates are simply not acceptable as they are unreliably optimistic, and shift all risks onto the ratepayers. If NSPI is certain of their numbers, then they can have the project built by their mother company Emera Inc. at complete risk to their shareholders," wrote Mr. Lisi.

Mr. Lisi is also president of Strait Bio-Gen, which tried unsuccessfully to convince government regulators three months ago to approve a request by NSP to buy $60-million worth of biomass generated electricity from a partnership between NewPage Port Hawkesbury and Strait Bio-Gen.

NSP says it needs to go ahead with the wind project to meet tough new environmental regulations to reduce pollution. Last April, NSP bought the Nuttby Mountain wind farm from its struggling developer, EarthFirst Canada Inc., in an attempt to move the project forward.

And the Nova Scotia government is urging the board to grant NSP’s request for the wind project. Energy Department lawyer Stephen McGrath wrote in a brief that "all feasible projects should be permitted to proceed as quickly as possible."


http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1151261.html

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Pictou County wind farm powers up this month


A 34-turbine wind farm in Pictou County will begin selling electricity this month to Nova Scotia Power.

After months of hard work and major setbacks, RMSenergy of Westville has installed the wind turbines in the Cobequid Range, just 25 kilometres west of New Glasgow, and is busy commissioning and wiring the huge turbines for energy production.

For RMSenergy president Reuben Burge it will be an important milestone when the turbines start creating electricity.

"We’re still hopeful for the end of November. Still a good push to get it done yet, but it’s coming close," said Mr. Burge on Monday.

Last year, RMSenergy was one of six groups that signed long-term power agreements with NSP, all scheduled to come on stream in late 2009.

However, RMSenergy is the largest and the only one on schedule, while the five other wind developers have had their projects delayed by the global credit crisis.

"It’s very difficult, a big job and involves a lot of help from people in the industry. It’s a $100-million project and there’s a reason why, because there is a lot of work to it," said Mr. Burge.

These wind developments are critical to moving Nova Scotia beyond its heavy reliance on dirty, coal-fired electrical generation.

The 51 megawatts of power generated from the turbines will provide enough energy to power 18,000 homes annually, Mr. Burge said.

All 34 turbines are standing and work crews are completing the wiring and commissioning.

"Each machine gets tested for a day to make sure it is functioning normally and putting out the right power for the wind speed," said Mr. Burge.

Developing and constructing this large wind farm has employed over 100 people for the past six months and has had some problems, he said.

"We’ve had some major setbacks but we’re getting over them."

He said there were complications in delivering the towers and delays in trucking and permitting.

Currently, the project is experiencing delays with installing its $1-million transformer that weighs 68 tonnes and is five metres high, he said.

"It took a year to manufacturer; it’s just a big, huge piece of equipment that’s awkward to move," he said. "It’s a challenge just to locate onto the site."

It is the last major step to connecting the wind turbines to the power grid. Last year, NSP contracted for 247 megawatts of power, enough power for 87,000 homes. When added to its existing wind farm system, this would account for 10 per cent of the province’s electricity by 2013.

NSP executives have admitted they contracted nearly twice the wind power they needed to meet tough new environmental regulations. In April, NSP took over a proposed wind project in Colchester County in the hopes of bringing another 22 wind turbines on stream by 2011.


http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1150859.html