Vancouver, BC – Dec 14, 2009 – Hemmera today announced it has secured approval for two BC wind projects that could produce over 700 MW of clean power for the province. The Aeolis Thunder Mountain Wind project in the Peace Region and the NaiKun Wind project off the Queen Charlotte Islands were both granted provincial Environmental Assessment (EA) Certificates from the BC Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) on December 10, 2009.
"These approvals are the result of several years of work to identify and address any potential environmental issues in order to help these projects move forward,” said Brian Yates, Hemmera’s Business Leader of Planning & Management. "These projects not only support a provincial mandate of clean power generation, but we’ve also identified strong employment and economic development opportunities to benefit local communities and First Nations.”
Hemmera’s work in preparing the submissions included conducting impact studies, developing mitigation, and liaising with local communities and First Nations. The EAO concluded the projects will have no significant environmental, social or health effects on the surrounding areas. The Thunder Mountain Wind project and the NaiKun Wind project are amongst only a few projects in BC Hydro’s Clean Power Call to have been granted a provincial Environmental Assessment Certificate.
"With some of the best winds in the world in northeastern BC, we have a huge opportunity for the development of wind energy in this province. To ensure that the Thunder Mountain Wind Project is developing responsibly, and our commitments to the environment and local communities throughout the EA process were effectively managed, we retained the services of experts - many of whom are BC based. We are particularly pleased with the quality of the team that Hemmera assigned to advance work on the Thunder Project EA,” comments Colleen Brown, Director of Projects and Planning for Aeolis Wind Power Corporation.
"The NaiKun Wind project is on track to be Canada’s first offshore wind project, which meant this type of EA was new for all involved. Hemmera brought strong foresight to help navigate us through the process. They leveraged extensive experience with major land and sea-based projects in BC, to assist in the development of a thorough application and ensure we met the requirements of regulators when designing our monitoring and mitigation programs,” comments Matt Burns, NaiKun Wind’s Vice President, Operations.
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