Dan Mazier never liked working in the wind. But in 2005, when he heard that a 99 megawatt, wind-powered generating project in St. Leon, Man., was being built, he started to think about what his community could do to attract similar investment.
With three large power lines serving the coal-fired Brandon Generating Station running through Elton municipality where he lives, the farmer from Justice, Man., started to look into the possibility.
“We have wind, we have transmission lines. Why not start a project in our area?” said Mazier, who gave a presentation on his community’s efforts at the Keystone Agricultural Producers alternative energy workshop in Portage la Prairie, Man., Dec. 5.
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Normally, a developer will approach a community to see if it would be interested in such a project. Mazier thought it might be better to go a step further, and try to get the community active in the preliminary work.
Justice is eight kilometres from Brandon so it is included in the city’s development board. Being so close was a blessing and a curse, he said. While they faced hurdles in getting their voices heard, city council offered the town access to its resources, as well as $2,500 in seed money so it could start holding meetings.
The townspeople decided that a community-based project would suit them best. They formed a co-op called Elton Energy.
“We don’t know if we’re going to be going off into biodiesel or biomass or something, but this is the shell,” he said.
Mazier had a meeting with a wind energy developer in July 2006 who expressed an interest in working with the community. In November, another meeting was held with 15-20 landowners attending.
In his research, Mazier found the first legal step involves landowners signing an options contract, which commits the land to a specific developer for a potential project.
“These run from three to five years and there might be signing bonuses included.”
The developer then erects a wind-metering tower for six to 24 months to see if the area has enough wind to spin the turbine. If the wind isn’t strong enough or doesn’t blow consistently, the developer will likely move on and cancel the options contract.
“If there is enough wind, they will proceed with the project and begin to pursue long-term contracts with the landowners who have signed onto the options contracts,” he said.
Landowners should be wary, since the developer has all the control and the data in determining where the towers are going to be built.
“When they’ve been preparing for three to five years, it’s pretty hard to come up with a reason why you don’t want it on that particular quarter section, or near that creek. It’s pretty hard to defend yourself,” he said.
When signing a contract with a developer, Mazier said all farmers should be aware that they might not have a turbine on their land. Instead, the developer might want to make a deal only to ensure that nothing upwind will interfere with or block the turbine.
“So all the guys in the path of the turbine are living under the same rules as the guy who got it,” he said. “When you start dividing up the profits, is that worth $5 an acre, or $10 or what?”
Although Elton is still unsure if it has enough wind to make a project work, the announcement that the Manitoba government wants to develop 1,000 megawatts of wind power over the next decade, and plans to solicit proposals for 300 MW in projects this winter, means that the community has a head start.
“That puts us right on schedule. I was pretty happy to hear that, because I was getting tired of banging my head against the wall,” Mazier said.
Now, Elton Energy is trying to secure funds to erect a wind-metering tower and gather information to attract potential developers. Knowing the value of the resource will make it easier to negotiate a favourable agreement, should the opportunity come.
“All these developments, the money is coming out of either Toronto or Vancouver and it’s going right back there. All we really have in it is our land,” he said. “I figure, why can’t we keep more of it out here? It’s sort of like processing our own stuff and doing our own thing. There is risk, but with risk there is potential income.”
