New Saskatchewan wind power facility now online

More clean electricity will soon be flowing through Saskatchewan’s energy grid as the new Bekevar Wind Energy Facility gets up and running.

The facility, located north of Moose Mountain Provincial Park, is now online. It is expected to generate up to 200 megawatts of emissions-free power, which is roughly the amount needed to power 100,000 homes. SaskPower will purchase the facility’s output through a 25-year agreement.

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Rupen Pandya, SaskPower’s president and CEO, said the project fits into the Crown corporation’s long-term plan to add up to 3,000 megawatts of wind and solar power to the provincial grid by 2035.

The facility is expected to generate enough electricity to power about 100,000 homes. (Innagreen/Submitted)

“We are committed to achieving a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions power system, and we are on track to do so by 2050 or earlier,” Pandya said in a statement.

“Bekevar, which is Saskatchewan’s largest-ever renewable energy facility with Indigenous ownership, marks another important step toward that ambitious goal.”

SaskPower said 1,000 megawatts of wind and solar generation are currently in the development stage, and the company has added a requirement that proposals must come from companies with at least 10 per cent Indigenous ownership.

The Bekevar facility is owned and operated by Bekevar Wind LP, a partnership between Innagreen Investments and Nehiyawewini Energy Development Limited Partnership, which is wholly owned by Saskatchewan’s Cowesses First Nation.

Cowesses Chief Erica Beaudin said the First Nation is excited to see the project completed.

Indigenous people, we feel it is our duty to not only invest in clean energy, but to place ourselves front and centre as leaders in clean energy,” the chief said in a statement.

“Yotin (“wind” in Cree) plays an important role in our cultural ways of being and firmly believe this mighty spirit has many more teachings and blessings to bestow upon us all.”