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Wind Power
Green Power includes the Fund's interest in three wind power projects including a 50% interest in the SunBridge project at Gull Lake, Saskatchewan and a 33% interest in each of the Magrath and Chin Chute projects in Southern Alberta. Collectively referred to as Wind Power, the SunBridge, Magrath and Chin Chute wind power projects have a combined capacity of 71 megawatts (MW). SunBridge consists of 17 turbines, each with a capacity of 0.66 MW for an 11 MW total. The power from Sunbridge is delivered into the Saskatchewan power grid and is sold to Saskatchewan Power Corporation (SaskPower) under a long term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) which expires in 2022. The Magrath and Chin Chute wind projects both consist of 20 turbines, each with capacity of 1.5 MW for a 30MW total. The energy produced at Magrath and Chin Chute is delivered into the Alberta power grid. The Fund has entered into long-term agreements to fix the price received for its portion of production on these projects. The Magrath contract expires on November 30, 2024 while the Chin Chute contract expires on December 31, 2017.
The Fund entered into a contract to sell all available emission reduction credits generated by the Fund's interest in the Chin Chute and Magrath projects to Enbridge. The contract has an initial 20-year term ending October 1, 2026 and provides for a fixed price of $5 per tonne of avoided CO2 emissions, based on a negotiated rate of converting megawatts generated to tonnes of emissions reduced, plus applicable taxes.
To reduce the uncertainty associated with government support programs, Enbridge agreed to pay the Fund $10 per megawatt hour (MWh) of power produced by the Fund's interest in Chin Chute until the Wind Power Production Incentive (WPPI) or similar successor program funding was reinstated. The EcoEnergy Renewable Power Program Incentive (ERPPI) funding, a successor program to WPPI, was approved for Chin Chute on November 27, 2007 by Natural Resources Canada and is retroactive to April 1, 2007.
The Wind Power assets are subject to semi-annual maintenance to maintain the life of the turbines. Future maintenance expenditures will vary each year and given the infancy of this industry, long term projections of maintenance capital expenditures will likely differ from the actual results.