Grenfell – The Western Lily wind farm near Grenfell has achieved commercial operations and is supplying energy to the SaskPower grid. The project consists of 10 Enercon turbines, which will supply up to 20 MW of electricity – enough to power 8,000 homes.
“This is yet another example of our Government’s climate change mitigation efforts," said SaskPower Minister Dustin Duncan. “SaskPower has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from 2005 levels by 40 per cent by 2030, and the Western Lily windfarm coming online represents a positive step in that direction.”
Increasing Saskatchewan’s renewable power capacity is a key aspect of the province’s climate change strategy, Prairie Resilience, which was released in December 2017.
“Expanding wind power capacity is an important part of our effort to meet increasing demands for energy while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” said Howard Matthews, SaskPower Vice-President of Power Production. “Our agreement with Gaia is a sign of things to come as we continue to purchase more renewable power from independent power producers.”
The Power Purchase Agreement with Gaia Power, Inc., was signed Feb. 1, 2016 and construction began in June 2018.
“We are excited and proud to see the Western Lily facility come online and begin contributing to the provincial power grid,” Gaia President Samit Sharma said. “This is a project that is good for Saskatchewan, good for the communities of Grenfell, Wolseley and area, and good for the environment. We look forward to working with SaskPower for years to come.”
With the addition of Western Lily, Saskatchewan currently has a total of 241 megawatts (MW) of installed wind power capacity from seven wind power projects. SaskPower is in the process of adding 387 MW of wind power projects at locations near Assiniboia, Herbert and Riverhurst.
Coinciding with the announcement, SaskPower posted a video of extremely close drone work around the construction of new wind turbines near Grenfell. At some points the drone passes within a few metres of the tip of the crane. The video was originally posted by Borea Construction ULC, which worked on the project.
The video can be found at https://youtu.be/yw7qFivxt54.
