still no news

Frustration abounds as we continue to hold our breath waiting for NSPI to make some kind of announcement as to which projects have been accepted.

There has been no update on the NSPI site since December 5th. http://oasis.nspower.ca/documents/GIP_Queue_009.pdf

This is hard on all invovled:

• There are property owners who have plans to sell, buy, build, expand or renovate on hold.
• There are landowners who have signed leases to wind energy companies who do not know if they have this nice income to look forward to (generally $4,000 per turbine) or, alternatively, if they can accept other purchase or development deals on offer.
• There are Municipalities who stand to gain from taxes ($5,500 per mega watt) who would like to work on future budgets.
• And we mustn't forget the wind energy companies who must have their projects online for NSPI by the end of '09. The demand for turbines (from Denmark or Germany) is so backed up, that they stand to have to wait 1-2 years for an order to be filled, which is leaving things pretty tight for time.

The only news, which came about a month ago, is that letters of acceptance have been sent to six companies for eight projects. Therefore, most probably, there are two companies that have successfully been awarded two projects each. Mathematically, one company could have been awarded three projects, but that is unlikely.

There are a lot of people keeping mum over last minute wheeling and dealing. Corporate lawyers on both sides are attempting to sweeten the deal for their clients. Larger companies, with projects pending elsewhere and bigger investment companies funding their projects, can afford to take the risk and order their turbines. Smaller companies (again disadvantaged by the way this whole system is set up) don't dare take that same risk.

In the meanwhile, the rest of us scurry around getting ready for Christmas and hope for the best. Perhaps by the New Year we will have a better idea of what is going on.

Merry Christmas everyone.