Michelin buys into Barrington wind power ..........................................................
thechronicleherald.ca
By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
The blades of wind turbines will be turning in Canso to make tires for Michelin at its three Nova Scotia plants.
The world’s largest tire maker and Barrington Wind Energy Ltd. of Halifax will announce today a contract for green power.
"It’s a great opportunity to make electricity and not burn fossil fuels," Grant Ferguson, manager of Michelin’s Waterville plant, said Thursday.
Michelin will be Barrington’s anchor customer for the proposed $25-million project, with eight to 10 turbines to be built on public and private land near Canso and operating in 2008.
"The deal is about an environmental focus rather than financial," said Mr. Ferguson. "We’ve got a clear goal to improve our use of natural resources."
The Canso wind farm has been in the planning stages for almost three years. Michelin and Barrington started talking last year about using power from the project.
"We hope the project gets off the ground and it will be good for Canso. . . . We have a strong footprint in other parts of the province but not there," Mr. Ferguson said.
Financial details of the contract were not disclosed, although Mr. Ferguson said Michelin is not making a direct capital investment in the project.
Besides Waterville, Michelin North America’s two other Nova Scotia plants are in Granton and Bridgewater.
The company is headquartered in Laval, Que., and employs 4,700. While Michelin will not receive power directly from the Canso wind farm because Barrington must sell directly to Nova Scotia Power, it may in the future, said Erik Twohig, Barrington’s vice-president.
Barrington, which specializes in wind-energy technology, is negotiating a deal with NSP to sell power generated by the Canso farm, said Mr. Twohig.
He said the province has announced it will bring in regulations to allow wind-power developers to sell directly to customers by this fall.
Mr. Ferguson said Michelin has stated in the financial contract with Barrington affiliate Canso Windfield One Inc. that it will take all the power produced by the farm.
The contract is for 12 megawatts, the amount of electricity needed to power about 3,300 homes in an average year.
"We can use that and multiple times more," said Mr. Ferguson.
Mr. Twohig said an environmental impact statement has been filed with the federal government and the initial construction phase, including some turbines, is to be complete in 2007.
"We are pleased to be working with Michelin, a premier participant in the economy of Nova Scotia to enable us to add this new renewable electrical generation to the province of Nova Scotia," said Barrington president Ian Tillard.
Last month, Barrington announced it had signed a similar financial contract with municipal electric utilities in Antigonish, Berwick, Canso and Mahone Bay to provide a minimum of 12 megawatts. |
