Canada - Largest wind energy plant (300 MW) receives provincial approval

Calgary-based Greengate Power Corp. said it has received provincial approval to build Canada's largest wind farm. Construction on the Blackspring Ridge I wind power project in southern Alberta is expected to begin in 2012, with an in-service date of 2013.

Upon completion, the Blackspring Ridge is expected to be Canada's largest operating wind energy project with a total generating capacity of 300 megawatts. The wind turbines project is located in Vulcan County near the village of Carmangay, approximately 165 kilometres southeast of Calgary.

The Alberta Utilities Commission conducted an extensive review of the wind power project, and found that it is in the public interest with respect to its social, economic and environmental effects.

"We are very pleased to have received AUC approval for what we expect to be Canada's largest operating wind energy project," Greengate CEO Dan Balaban said in a news release.

Greengate said the Blackspring Ridge project is expected to provide "substantial" economic benefits to rural Alberta in the form of new jobs, increased tax revenues and royalties for landowners. The project is also expected to have a positive impact on Alberta's environmental performance by supplying a clean source of electricity for 100,000 homes and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 600,000 tonnes per year, the equivalent of removing 120,000 cars from Alberta's roads.

Greengate is a privately held firm focused on the development of wind energy projects across Alberta with access to existing transmission and supported by long-term fixed-price agreements. Greengate is currently developing 1,550 megawatts of wind energy projects on approximately 80,000 hectares of private land.

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