The wind energy projects, have been developed by juwi Wind Services Canada, on behalf of the project’s community and institutional owners. The selection was made after a competitive process managed by juwi Wind Services Canada.
“White is a top tier North American wind energy construction company and we saw real value in White’s competitive pricing, capacity, and previous Nova Scotia experience,” said juwi Director of Operations Jed van Sciver.
The 24-MW portfolio of community projects consists of:
• Pockwock Community Wind Project (10 MW)
• Millbrook Community Wind Project (6 MW)
• Truro-Heights Community Wind Project (4 MW)
• Whynotts Community Wind project (4 MW)
“The White organization and their affiliated companies have built over 10,500 MW of wind power projects throughout North America and traditionally builds much larger projects. However, the close proximity of these projects and our past experience working with First Nations made the juwi wind portfolio an attractive opportunity for our company,” said Chris Hanson of White Construction Inc.
Mike Kosiancic of Firelight Infrastructure Partners, the common equity owner across all four projects said of White’s selection, “It is really unique to have such a large and capable contractor building community wind projects this size.”
The projects were developed as a portfolio under the Nova Scotia Community Feed-In-Tariff program, where each project is partially owned by the local community.
“Using the White organization gives our local investors greater certainty that our project will be completed on-time and on-budget,” said Terry Norman, President of Chebucto Pockwock Lake Wind Field Limited.
Additionally, three of the four projects in the portfolio also have significant ownership positions held by Nova Scotia’s Mi’kmaq Bands.
Chief Bob Gloade of Millbrook First Nation said, “As Chief of the majority owner in one of the projects and as Chairman of the Mi’kmaq Rights Benefits Committee, it was important to see that White had experience with First Nation’s labor and contractors and that they will continue that commitment as they build these projects.”
The four projects entered into turbine supply agreements with Vestas in late 2013 to supply a total of 12 V100-2.0 MW turbines.
Representatives from Vestas, White, juwi, owners, and the initial project developer, hosted public open houses in February to share information with stakeholders about the upcoming builds.
