Proponents of the 300MW Henvey Inlet wind farm propose to install Vestas turbines at the northern Ontario site.
The largest feed-in tariff scheme in the province is a 50-50 joint venture between Pattern Development and Nigig Power, which is owned by the Henvey Inlet First Nation.
The band on Sunday voted to approve an environmental permit that authorizes construction of up to 91 Vestas V126 3.3MW turbines.
“It’s a huge milestone,” Nigig president Ken Noble told reNEWS. “We’ve been working on this for a long time. It took twice as long and cost three times as much as we’d imagined.”
The First Nation has legal authority to grant a lease and environmental approval for the wind farm, sited on reserve land on the shore of Georgian Bay.
The proponent aims to start construction in late fall and commercial operation is pegged for February 2018. The project must meet domestic content rules.
In the meantime, geotech work is slated for this month and Nigig expects to finalize a general contractor in early April. As well, the Canadian Wildlife Service is reviewing proposed ‘species at risk’ mitigation measures.
The developer also has finalized a 85km transmission line route south to the Parry Sound transformer station.
Henvey Inlet has a 20-year power purchase agreement with the Independent Electricity System Operator. The 15 cents/kWh FiT price includes a 1.5 cent/kWh aboriginal price adder.
Image: Vestas
