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CANADIAN INDUSTRY ONLINE - JUNE 2013
O
N APR I L 2ND
,
RES Canada
announced that it had com-
pleted construction of Alberta’s largest
wind project: Halkirk Wind.
The project is 150MW capacity,
and hosts 83 Vestas V90 1.8MW tur-
bines, and is owned by Capital Power
LP. It is the largest wind project in
Alberta to date. RES Canada was the
balance of plan contractor for Halkirk
Wind, and Peter Clibbon, VP of De-
velopment for RES Canada said that
the company was looking forward
to “working on other projects like
Halkirk, which will drive investment
and create jobs.”
CIO spoke with Clibbons to talk
about the challenges with construc-
tion and the outcomes for community
development. The project, which is the
only wind farm project in the north
east of Alberta, “proves that a wind re-
source in Alberta that’s not in the pack
can work,” Clibbons says.
RES typically constructs a wind
farm in two seasons, but built Halkirk
efficiently in one season, despite chal-
lenging environmental conditions
presented by the extremes of Alberta’s
winter and spring weather. The com-
pany also faced significant delays
caused by heavy rains and an early
spring thaw. “We’ve built in isolated
areas, but this project was particularly
isolated—however, we have the capac-
ity to build projects in many different
environments and have proven to do
so in Canada and elsewhere,” Clibbons
notes.
Clibbons mentions that the com-
pany was able to use local contractors
for the job, and that a wind farm like
Halkirk “benefits the local community
because it creates a long-term industry
from renewable energy.”
The Alberta labour pool as chal-
lenging as it is, the company was
fortunate to be able to recruit local
contractors. At the peak of construc-
tion, RES Canada had up to 360 skilled
workers on site for the civil and elec-
trical works associated with Halkirk.
The $346 million project (located near
Halkirk) can provide enough renew-
able energy to power approximately
50,000
average Alberta homes. This
project signals RES Canada’s grow-
ing presence in Canada, and in the
west. The company also has 631MW of
PROJECT SPOTLIGHT
