Looks like planned Whitla Wind Farm expansion will go ahead in 2021

By Medicine Hat News on May 5, 2020.

Capital Power has ordered key equipment for its planned Whitla Wind Farm expansion – a key indication that work set to take place in 2021 near Bow Island will move ahead.

The Edmonton-based company stated in its first-quarter financial report, released Monday, that it was performing well, though it expects power demand and therefore prices to be lower than were forecast in 2020.

In a note on subsequent events, the company signed a 10-year contract extension with wind turbine maker Vestas, and also the supply agreement for new equipment for Whitla expansion.

The first phase of the power generating facility, a 56-turbine array located southwest of Medicine Hat, went into service in late 2019.

The planned $165-million expansion would see an additional 25 turbine sites set up on nearby land.

It was one of three major wind energy projects greenly by developers late last year.

In March however, Suncor announced it would remove its “Forty Mile Wind” project from its near-term project development queue in an effort to preserve money as it dealt with a sever decline in the price of crude oil.

The status of the similarly named “Forty Mile Wind” project planned by Berkshire Hathaway Energy Canada is not known.