The Bow Lake Wind Facility north of Sault Ste. Marie is now operational.
The initiative is a joint venture of the Batchewana First Nation of Ojibways and BluEarth Renewables, and comes under the umbrella of the Nodin Kitagan Limited Partnership and Nodin Kitagan 2 Limited Partnership, formed by the partners in 2012.
The project represents one of the largest economic partnerships between a First Nation and a wind-energy developer in Canada.
Located roughly 80 kilometres north of the Sault, Bow Lake’s 36 turbines have a capacity of 60 megawatts, enough to power 15,000 homes. The facility operates under a 20-year power purchase agreement with the Independent Electricity System Operator.
Batchewana Chief Dean Sayers called the agreement a “win-win situation.”
“Batchewana is open for business and we are injecting millions into the local and provincial economy,” Sayers said in a release.
“Commissioning the Bow Lake Wind Facility is a key milestone for BluEarth,” added Grant Arnold, BluEarth president and CEO. “This project is an example of how First Nations and the private sector can work collaboratively to create new, sustainable and high-quality jobs in Ontario.”
More than 600,000 person-hours of construction work were created by the project, of which over 97 per cent was provided by Ontario residents. The project has also generated considerable investment in the local and regional economies.
