Construction of Wolfe Island wind farm ready to begin

Construction will soon begin on an 86-turbine wind farm on Wolfe Island, near Kingston.

Canadian Renewable Energy Corp., a subsidiary of Calgary, Alta.-based Canadian Hydro Developers, is in the midst of bringing the turbines to the island.

“We’ll start delivering them to the erection site sometime in mid- to late-September,” said Mike Jablonicky, site supervisor for Canadian Renewable Energy.

The 80-metre turbine towers and their 45-metre-long blades are coming by barge from Ogdensburg, N.Y., after having been brought over the ocean from Denmark.

Delivered in nine pieces, the towers weigh 95 tons on their trailers and are so large they can be shipped on project ships at a rate of no more than eight turbines at a time.

They are currently being transported to a Wolfe Island storage site, which is a 12-hectare gravelled-over farmer’s field.

The field will be returned to its natural state once it has served its function.

There are now as many as 60 people on the island working for Canadian Renewable Energy, Jablonicky said.

They are working at the storage site, as well as unloading the barges delivering the turbine pieces, building 40 roads in and around the wind farm, and preparing it for construction.

In order to build the towers, which will be installed on the west side of the island, a crane pad must be built. The crane that will be installed on the pad will build the lower parts of the turbine towers.

Afterward, another larger crane will be installed. It will be used to assemble the top parts of the towers.

When construction is in full swing, as many as 250 people will be working on the project at any one time.

Construction will slow down a little over the winter as the cold weather settles in, but Jablonickly said the work will continue.

It’s anticipated the wind farm will be operational by March 31, 2009.

At that time, it will start feeding 597,000 megawatt hours of green electricity into the Ontario power grid. That’s enough electricity to power 75,000 average Ontario homes.

The project could have gotten off to a much slower start.

Some Wolfe Island residents asked that the provincial government conduct a detailed study of the potential effects of a wind farm in their community.

In March, the Ministry of the Environment turned down that request for an environmental assessment.

While construction is going ahead, an appeal has been filed in the Ontario Divisional Court for a judicial review.

Canadian Hydro Developers has said it will fight the court action and expects the courts will be reluctant to overturn a ministerial decision.

When it’s completed, the Wolfe Island Wind Farm will be one of several operated by Canadian Hydro Developers in Ontario, Alberta and Quebec.

The company, which is traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange, acquired Le Nordais Wind Plant on the Gaspé Peninsula in December 2007 for $121 million. The 131-turbine wind farm generates an average of 165,000 megawatt hours per year and has been operating since 1999.

At the same time, it is building the Wolfe Island Wind Farm, Canadian Hydro Developers is expanding the size of a 45-turbine farm it operates near Shelburne, Ont.

Another 88 turbines are being added. Jablonicky is also overseeing that operation.

There are also three wind plants in southwestern Alberta, near the town of Pincher Creek: in Cowley Ridge, Cowley North and Sinnott, where there are a total of 79 turbines.