(via TheSpec.com) Hamilton companies have landed the major contracts in a $1.5-billion offshore wind energy project.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\nIt\u2019s expected the majority of 1,900 jobs to build Windstream Energy\u2019s 300-megawatt Wolfe Island Shoals project near Kingston will land in the city as four local firms will fabricate the steel, assemble the components and transport the giant towers across Lake Ontario.
\nWalters Group will fabricate the structural steel, Hamilton Port Authority will provide the facilities to assemble the parts, McKeil Marine will use its tugs and barges to transport and erect the components and Bermingham Foundation Solutions will secure the massive wind towers to the lake bed.
\nAn official announcement is coming Wednesday morning. No dollar figure for the value of the local contracts is being released.
\n\u201cWindstream is looking forward to bringing this level of investment, revitalization and job growth to the Hamilton area,\u201d said Ian Baines, the Burlington-based company\u2019s president, in a news release obtained exclusively by The Spectator.
\n\u201cWe are responding directly to Finance Minister Dwight Duncan\u2019s challenge this week to invest and create jobs in Ontario. We are here. We are stepping up to the table. We are ready to invest, the jobs are immediate and real.\u201d
\nAll the companies are part of a manufacturing consortium called the Lake Ontario Offshore Network, formed to lobby governments about the benefits and economic value of wind energy.
\nBut the project doesn\u2019t have a timeline since the Ontario government imposed a moratorium on new projects almost a year ago, saying more scientific study of the impacts of wind energy is needed.
\nWhile some, including leading environmental groups, praise it as a source of \u201cclean\u201d energy, neighbours of wind farms protest noise they claim destroys the value of their properties.
\n\u201cThe expertise is found in Hamilton to manufacture, construct, transport and install the structures,\u201d said Windstream spokesperson Randi Rahamim.
\n\u201cThere are no offshore wind projects being built in North American right now \u2026 This is a wonderful opportunity for the Ontario economy.\u201d
\nShe said no one has direct experience in building offshore wind projects, so the local companies involved could become go-to experts for other North American jurisdictions looking to get involved in wind energy.
\nThe proposed wind turbine farm, made up of 100 three-megawatt turbines, is being built five to 16 kilometres off the southwest shore of Wolfe Island in eastern Lake Ontario.
\nAn economic impact study commissioned by Windstream said the total Wolfe Island project investment would be $1.36 billion, of which $700 million would remain in Ontario. It would also generate about 1,900 jobs during the five-year construction phase and 175 operational jobs over 20 years.
\nCouncillor Judi Partridge says Hamilton could become a future hub for offshore wind expertise and supply in a \u201cmassive market\u201d in the United States.
\nShe says city economic development officials have been working on landing the project for more than a year.
\n\u201cThis project means a number of things, but most importantly it\u2019s creating jobs in a manufacturing sector that are desperately needed.\u201d
\nPartridge has already served notice that she wants council to reconsider its own moratorium on wind energy projects within the city.
\n\u201cIt was very misguided of us to have a moratorium on the city when our own manufacturers are trying to find work and develop a sector that can provide jobs.\u201d
\nLocal unions are celebrating the job potential of wind energy.
\n\u201cThis is the beginning and one hell of a beginning,\u201d said Tony DePaulo, Hamilton-Niagara regional supervisor of United Steelworkers.
\n\u201cThe Hamilton Port Authority will be dedicating $20 million in physical infrastructure assets to the project,\u201d said president Bruce Wood. \u201cThis is an incredible opportunity for the revitalization of Hamilton\u2019s North End, and an illustration of how Canada\u2019s marine highway can be utilized to move large infrastructure projects such as this one.\u201d
\nNeil Everson, director of economic development for Hamilton, says it\u2019s great news for the city, which has targeted clean technology as one of the pillars of its economic strategy. He says the project will create highly skilled jobs, but also provide opportunities for local apprentices and researchers at McMaster University and the CANMET facility.
\n\u201cThis provides terrific business retention and expansion opportunities, as well as attracting new jobs.\u201d
\nHe said that being first in the marketplace for a new means of energy generation is a key advantage, although he acknowledges that wind energy is highly controversial.
\n\u201cThis is not dissimilar to the oilsands. People will say, \u2018Why are you (doing work) out there?\u2019 But the fact is if we\u2019re not fabricating and installing out there, Houston is. We need to take advantage of value-added manufacturing opportunities, because they are crucial to Hamilton.\u201d
\nSiemens has been awarded the contract to build 130 turbines for the project, which will generate enough energy to power 100,000 homes. The company closed its Hamilton plant last year, so that work will be carried out in its Tillsonburg plant.
\nThere is no timeline for the project. Windstream, a privately held company based in Ontario but backed by American investors, holds the only approved feed-in-tariff contract for offshore wind energy generation in Ontario but the province has yet to give the go-ahead on construction.
\nThere is more than 2,900 MW of offshore wind power proposed in the Great Lakes over the next five years.
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mmacleod@thespec.com<\/a><\/em> \n905-526-3408 | @meredithmacleod<\/em>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Five years of work to build turbine towers for $1.5b wind energy project (via TheSpec.com) Hamilton companies have landed the major contracts in a $1.5-billion offshore wind energy project. It\u2019s expected the majority of 1,900 jobs to build Windstream Energy\u2019s 300-megawatt Wolfe Island Shoals project near Kingston will land in the city as four local […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
As many as 1,900 jobs coming to Hamilton - Steve Roblin<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n