Bow Lake Wind Farm: It begins

The first of 36 wind turbines will start to rise next week at the Bow Lake Wind Farm near Montreal River Harbour, delegates to an international energy conference in Sault Ste. Marie were told Wednesday.

The disclosure was made at the Energy Opportunities Conference at Algoma’s Water Tower Inn by Bryan Tripp of BluEarth Renewables Inc., which is partnering with Batchewana First Nation on the $300 million project.

Once the first few wind towers are up, the others will follow in rapid succession, said Karen Bird, renewable energy director at Batchewana First Nation.

At least 35 Sault Ste. Marie-area businesses are expected to benefit from the massive project.

“We’re deep into construction,” Bird said. “We’ll have some towers up soon. It’s fairly quick after that. It’s like a domino effect. Of course we’re fighting the winter. Thank God it hasn’t snowed yet,” she said.

Known within Batchewana First Nation as Chinodin Chigumi Nodin Kitagan, the project is largely on provincial crown land in the unorganized townships of Peever and Smilsky, about 80 kilometres north of Sault Ste. Marie and six kilometres east of Montreal River Harbour.

“It’s one of the largest projects in this area,” Bird said.

During peak construction, there will be about 180 full-time staff working at Bow Lake, about 30 percent coming from Batchewana First Nation.

“We are proud that we are able to contribute from a skilled labour force at that level,” Bird said.

A subsidiary of BluEarth Renewables will establish a long-term office in Batchewana First Nation’s industrial park for wind technicians.

Long-term maintenance of the wind towers will be run from there.

Move-in date in the industrial park is expected to be sometime over the next couple of weeks, Bird said.

Batchewana First Nation is also involved in a smaller Goulais wind project near the top of Mile Hill.

The timeline on that job is almost identical to the Bow Lake schedule, with simultaneous construction start dates and turbine deliveries.

Six companies in the engineering and technology sectors from the Sault Ste. Marie area are participating in the Bow Lake Wind Farm, as are 15 local construction firms, as well as 14 area companies supplying material and equipment.

That’s 35 companies within Sault Ste. Marie that have benefited in some way, shape or form of new business, new relationship with the construction project,” Bird said, “…not to mention the strides that have been made in the relationship between Batchewana and Sault Ste. Marie while we were doing all this work.”

Organized by the Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre, the Energy Opportunities Conference has attracted about 150 delegates from as far away as Denmark, Sweden and Finland.

The conference continues on Thursday.

(PHOTO: Karen Bird, renewable energy director at Batchewana First Nation and Steve Butland, Ward 1 city councillor, at the Energy Opportunities Conference at Algoma's Water Tower Inn on Wednesday. David Helwig/SooToday.com)