Kahnawa:ke Wind Energy ‘Blowing In’ By 2021
Written by Paul Graif on 31 August 2020
A groundbreaking ceremony today will eventually provide Kahnawake with a boost of energy. The wind energy project groundbreaking ceremony took place today following years of negotiations with the Quebec Government, the MRC and Kruger energy. The project is expected to come to fruition in 2021. Bud Morris is the President of Kahnawà:ke Sustainable Energies:
“This is a partnership between Kahnawà:ke Sustainable Energies and Kruger Energy located in St-Remi and St-Michel, a 24 megawatt wind-farm that is scheduled to come into operation in 2021. Today was the first ceremonial groundbreaking for the project, construction will actually only begin next week, this week is mobilization for the construction crews and then next week the actual construction will start. This year it’s foundations and collector system and next year, turbines will be installed.”
Morris says that revenue is the primary benefit for Kahnawà:ke with the 20-year contract:
“There’s two different arrangements: one is control, control is 50.1% and that’s controlled by Kahnawà:ke Sustainable Energies; and then the equity, which is where profit will go to is at: 70% (Kruger) and 30% (Kahnawà:ke Sustainable Energies). The contract is for 20 years starting from when the turbines start delivering electricity and there’s a possibility that we’ll be able to enter into another contract once those 20 years are up.”
The Kahnawake wind farm will produce 24 megawatts of energy. The project is slated to be up and running in the fall of 2021 with an approximate $1 Million projected net income to the community per year.
