KIPLING - SaskPower has awarded its next utility-scale wind facility to Renewable Energy Systems (RES) Canada and Awasis Nehiyawewini Energy Development, a wholly owned Cowessess First Nation entity.
Set to be constructed south of Kipling in the RM of Hazelwood, the RM of Kingsley and on Cowessess First Nation reserve land, the Bekevar Wind Energy Project will supply 200 megawatts (MW) of zero-emissions power, enough to serve up to 100,000 homes.
Patrick Henn, development manager with RES, says it’s so important to have open houses such as one recently in Kipling to answer any of the public’s questions about the project.
“People have been speaking with their councillors, the reeve and administrators. We have had great support from the RM offices.”
Meetings and open houses such as this are held to explain and answer any concerns the public may have so they won’t have any misconceptions about it.
“We do consultations and want to make sure the people understand the project.”
“This is a big construction project, it’s $300 million in investments. It’s a big project for the community for sure. People are completely entitled to have concerns. It’s a new industrial facility.”
“We’re quite happy. We’ve been out here since 2016 and it’s been going great. We were successful in the competition to get this project. We just have a great community here, also combined with the partnership with Cowessess and a good mix of the two collaborative RMs, all the landowners and the 20,000 acres of land from more than 25 families.”
The turbine locations range from approximately seven kilometres south of Kipling to as far south as almost to the 7-11 Grid. The whole area covers roughly 40 square miles which will definitely change the landscape as we know it. The tall structures will have a footprint in the scenery.
At the open house there were visual simulations of what the landscape will look like once the wind farm is finished.
“What I like about this project is that it is very spread out.”
Long after the wind farm is complete, benefits will still be seen by Kipling and area.
“Economic benefits will include the landowners with turbines receiving yearly rent, RM’s will receive property tax, school tax every year, a mill rate based on commercial and industrial.”
The wind farm will create jobs as well, and the operations will need at least six or more full-time workers. Temporary jobs will include snow removal and maintaining roads, and maintenance of the sub-station.
“We’re very proud to offer a bursary program which we will be launching next year. We are planning to offer a bursary for youth who are from the RMs to be trained in a one-year program that is specific to wind turbine maintenance and operations. There’s one stipulation – you can’t be scared of heights.”
Daphne Kay, community energy specialist for Cowessess First Nation, explains that it’s a 200-megawatt wind farm with 35 to 40 wind turbines. The decision is yet to be made on which model of wind turbine the company will go with.
Maps were available at the open house showing where the proposed wind turbines will be erected.
“We’re looking at starting construction in the spring of 2022 with hopes of commercial operations by 2023, although we’re still in the consultation and developmental stages.”
On June 1, they signed a 25-year power purchase agreement with SaskPower.
“We’re had a lot of traffic come through the doors today asking many questions about the project and that’s exactly what we want.”
Why wind energy?
The towers go up quickly with a very small footprint afterwards and it’s a safe and economical source of energy.
Benefits to the local community include training, hiring for over 150 local jobs during the construction of the project, and afterwards, looking to train candidates for the operations and maintenance.
“Out of the 150 to 200 open houses I’ve held throughout my career regarding a wind turbine project, noise is probably the topic that the community has the most questions about,” explains Henn.
Shant Dokouzian was in attendance as a consultant explaining that the company will be using the strict Alberta noise regulations to locate turbines.
“Forty decibels (dBA) is basically a pretty conservative level that other provinces have implemented. Elsewhere in the world, it’s a sound level which is deemed to be acceptable.”
For example 40 dBA is more than a whisper and a regular conversation is about at 60. If you’re at the base of a turbine, you’ll hear it, although these wind turbines will be set no closer than 750 meters to a residence.
Why talk about sound?
Because it is a concern with many of ‘how much noise do they make with the humming and the swoosh sound with every turn’.
“Sound will be extremely low based on the distance the turbines will be from houses. Taking into consideration the weather conditions, humidity, temperature and wind – all of these are factored in to make sure the sound is below 40 dBA.”
If by chance there’s a tornado, each wind turbine has its own meteorological sensor which measures the wind direction, speed, humidity and temperature and it continually adjusts itself. Therefore, if the wind changes it turns into the wind. If the temperature gets too cold or too hot it stops. If the wind becomes too high, say 70 to 80 kilometres per hour (km/h) up at the turbine, not at the ground, it will stop.
It will feather the blades so it doesn’t catch the wind. The turbines are designed to withstand up to 150 km/h winds.
“Since the early 2000s, there have been many more safeguards installed in these turbines. There are over 400,000 turbines erected worldwide and there hasn’t been one injury to the public,” explains Dokouzian.
When there’s an ice storm, they have sensors to alert the blades to stop turning.
Andrew Ryckman of Natural Resource Solutions Inc. explains that as part of the regulatory process they work through ecological requirements, guidelines and surveys.
“For this particular project we’ve gone through three-season surveys at the site. Beginning in March of this year, we observed spring bird migration, we’ve done breeding bird surveys, and acoustic bat surveys, amphibian surveys, and we just finished up the fall bird migration surveys a couple of weeks ago. Then we do a whole series of targeted surveys including sharp-tailed grouse, burrowing and short-eared owls and document every raptor nest.”
Other than the wildlife, they also survey the vegetation and habitat.
“We’re still processing a lot of the data. What we’ve seen so far is that there’s not that many sensitive species records.”
Patrick Henn explains:
“There are three pillars to having a good wind project.”
“The main reasons why we chose this area for the wind farm, first is the wind which produces good fuel in the area, proximity to SaskPower grid – the switching station at Kennedy, local support of this new idea from landowners and RM’s. You need those three combined. If you’re missing one of these three, you don’t have a project.”
