There could be dollars blowing in the wind in Guysborough County, Warden Lloyd Hines says.
The Municipality of the District of Guysborough wants to cash in on a government program that guarantees a price per megawatt hour for community-owned renewable energy projects.
"It’s a no brainer," Hines said in a telephone interview Thursday.
"The investment return on a preliminary look appears to be attractive to municipalities."
The municipality has issued a request for proposals, which closes Sept. 15.
"We are very interested . . . to get some expert advice on what the opportunities are."
A quick glance at the province’s wind atlas (nswindatlas.ca) shows that Guysborough County has some of the windiest points in the province.
Hines said the municipality has been approached several times over the years by multi-national companies interested in setting up wind farms in the area. He said gaining experience with their own small-scale operation will help give the municipality the experience necessary to deal with larger projects.
A proposed site for the turbines is at the county’s landfill.
"It would be a good fit," Hines said, explaining that the operation already uses solar energy and houses recycling facilities and an electronics depot.
Initial estimates show that the turbines would likely cost about $300,000 each. The machines should last about 20 years and would be paid off in about 10 years, Hines said.
The province’s Community Feed-in Tariff program encourages community-owned renewable energy projects by groups such as Mi’kmaq bands, co-operatives, universities, non-profit organizations, community economic development organizations and municipalities.
Groups are allowed to own up to five turbines.
The province has also agreed to extend Municipal Finance Corp. funding to such projects, which will give municipalities access to capital at low rates.
Under program rules, municipalities can have a private partner design, build and operate the project but a private partner cannot have an ownership stakehttp://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1261354.html
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