The Otter Creek Wind Farm project has set up shop in Wallaceburg. Meanwhile, the project organizers are looking at installing fewer wind turbines than initially anticipated.
New Wallaceburg office opens
The development team with Boralex, who have partnered with Renewable Energy Systems Canada Inc. for the project, invited guests to the grand opening of their new community engagement centre in Wallaceburg, located at 216 Nelson Street, between Medical Motion and the Wallaceburg Wellness Centre, on Wednesday afternoon.
The office will be open on Tuesday’s from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and by appointment.
Adam Rosso, director of project development in Ontario for Boralex, said they are happy to have a permanent location in Wallaceburg.
“One of the things that Boralex takes very seriously is to have a community presence and have the ability to talk to ours hosts and our land owners on a more frequent basis, than is actually legislated in our regulations and our permits,” Rosso said.
“Our hope is instead of having a large influx on concerns and questions, that will happen at the second public open house (at the end of January.) What we’re trying to do is be available to the community every Tuesday, so that if people have questions about the project, please come in. The office here will be staffed with our team members to address any comments or questions, with copies of all the reports.”
Guests at the grand opening included senior staff from the Municipality of Chatham-Kent and Walpole Island First Nation, along with Councillors Carmen McGregor and Joe Faas.
12 turbines set to be installed
Rosso said more details about the Otter Creek project will become more publicly available in the next coming weeks.
The first draft site plan has already been published:
“In our first public open house we said we were planning on between 16 and 18 turbines located within our project area,” Rosso said.
“Over the last few months, based on some public consultation that we’ve been doing with members of the community, as well as working with our team in Kingsey Falls (Quebec), we were able to reduce the number of turbines down to 12. I think this is a very good thing for the people of Wallaceburg and our First Nation hosts at Walpole.”
Their second open house will be held at the end of January.
Background
The project is to be located all within Chatham-Kent, just north of Wallaceburg.
The project would generally be bounded by Stewart Line and McCreary Line to the south, Whitebread Line and Kent Line west of Mandaumin Road to the north, Mandaumin Road to the east, and Payne Road to the west.
It was announced in March that the project had received provincial support.
The projectr was selected by the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) and awarded a contract for the 50 MW Wind Farm Project.
The companies stated they have obtained the support of Walpole Island First Nation, who is slated to have a 10.5% ownership stake in the project.
RES will own 51%, while Boralex will own 38.5%.
The Municipality of Chatham-Kent has also put their support behind the project and has been granted an option to participate in the project up to 15% of the limited partnership interests following commercial operation.
Multiple people have expressed their concerns about the project, including what the impact on well water in the area will be.
– Photo credit: Aaron Hall
