Canadian developer starts seventh windfarm in France
MONTREAL, Quebec, Canada, July 25, 2007. Boralex has commissioned its seventh windfarm in France.
Located at Saint Agrève in Ardèche, the site includes six Enercon turbines, each with a capacity of 2.3 MW. This facility brings the company’s total installed capacity in the wind sector in France to 103 MW.
“We are very happy with the commissioning of this new site and very satisfied to operate a seventh windfarm in France,” says president Patrick Lemaire. The inauguration of the Saint Agrève's site will take place in September.
“The windfarm is the result of seven years of work and consultation,” explains Alain Cabanes of the Haut Vivarais Communes Community. “Even at the beginning of the construction, Saint Agrève's windfarm became a tourist attraction that our tourist office successfully enhances with guided tours.”
The initial total installed capacity of the site was estimated at 12 MW but new French legislation allowed an upgrade to 14 MW. Boralex says this allowed an improved energy production without increasing the environmental risks related to the construction of the site.
Earlier this month, Boralex signed an agreement to acquire nine windfarms in the Windsor region of Ontario, near the U.S. border. The facilities have an installed capacity of 10 MW each.
The agreement will allow Boralex to commercially commission and operate its first windfarms in Canada next year. Gengrowth will act as a partner in development of the projects which, once completed, will double the wind capacity of Boralex.
“It is with great enthusiasm that Boralex penetrates the Ontario wind energy market,” says Lemaire. “These projects are in line with our strategic plan as well as the diversification of our activities.”
The windfarms have electricity sales contracts within the framework of the provincial government standard offer program in Ontario. All energy generated will be sold to Ontario Power Authority under 20-year contracts.
Boralex is a private producer of electricity whose core business is development and operation of power stations that use renewable energy. It owns and operates 21 power stations with total installed capacity of 333 MW in Quebec, the northeastern U.S. and France, based on wind, hydroelectricity, thermal and cogeneration power from natural gas or wood residue.
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