Sask.'s largest wind farm opens near Assiniboia

Saskatchewan's largest wind farm opened Tuesday morning near Assiniboia.

Fifty turbines, an underground electrical collection system and a transformer substation were constructed as part of the Golden South Wind Energy project.

Access roads were created and existing roads just outside of Assiniboia, a town of just over 2,300 people about 135 kilometres southwest of Regina, were upgraded.

Potentia Renewables Inc., which was the successful candidate for a SaskPower request for proposals for utility-scale wind power in 2018, broke ground on the project in 2019. Its total cost was $340 million, according to a Potentia news release.

Ben Greenhouse, the senior vice-president of growth at Potentia Renewables, said the company hired 150 people to construct the wind farm. Seven permanent employees will maintain and run the turbines.

"I think in a town this size, seven jobs isn't nothing," he said. "It's seven families, it's children at the local school, so we think it has a meaningful impact just from the people point of view."

Greenhouse said the turbines will last 25 to 30 years, but Potentia only has a 20-year contract with SaskPower.

After 25 to 30 years, "we would look at decommissioning them or potentially repowering the site, depending on what SaskPower's needs are at the time," he said.

If decomissioned, the towers would be recycled and the steel would be reused, he said. 

"The blades are made of fibreglass and there's a lot of working going on to recycle them right now, so I think in 20 years those would be recyclable as well."

The wind farm has the capacity to produce 200 megawatts of power — enough to power 100,000 homes in Saskatchewan.

Troy King, the acting president for SaskPower, said the Crown energy corporation has entered into a power purchase agreement to buy any energy Potentia develops, which will then be fed into the provincial power grid.

"All of our generation sources in Saskatchewan feed into the grid and we use it equally," King said. "When we build our rates and charge customers, everyone benefits from the wind power."

King said with this wind farm, the province now has a total of 600 megawatts of renewable energy generation, representing 20 to 25 per cent of Saskatchewan's total energy.