SgurrEnergy lends expertise to Nova Scotia projects

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SgurrEnergy is supporting two community wind portfolios through the financing and construction phases in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.

The company’s North American arm is conducting lender’s independent engineer services on the Watts Wind II portfolio, which comprises three sites located in the Nova Scotia communities of New Glasgow (6.4MW), Barrington (3.2MW), and Wedgeport (1.8MW).  The team supported National Bank of Canada, the lender, through a technical due diligence review, bank-grade energy yield and is now completing construction monitoring on all three sites.

The SgurrEnergy team has also been acting as lender’s engineer for the 22MW ScotianWEB Phase II wind portfolio, on behalf of the project’s financial advisor, Travelers Capital Corporation.

Having advised the lender through the financing of the portfolio, SgurrEnergy is now monitoring construction progress of the five sites and will provide completion services to the lender in early 2015, when the portfolio is expected to commence commercial operation.

Ian Mc Donald, project manager at SgurrEnergy, said: “These projects are excellent examples of community scale wind farms, which are geographically diverse, being grouped together as portfolios in order to enhance their financial viability.

“SgurrEnergy has been involved in many community renewables projects since the company began in 2002 and we’re delighted to be supporting these two community wind portfolios to fruition.”

Both projects are being developed under Nova Scotia’s community feed-in-tariff program (COMFIT), which pays above market rates for power produced from clean energy sources.  It is part of Nova Scotia’s 2010 renewable electricity plan, which sets out a detailed path to move Nova Scotia away from carbon-based electricity toward sources that are greener and closer to home.

The province has committed to 25 percent renewable electricity by 2015 and 40 percent renewable electricity by 2020 and these projects, which are due to be completed in 2015, will contribute to those targets.

— Source: SgurrEnergy