Wind Works snags 80 MW of Ontario contracts

The seven deals are part of 184 contracts the Ontario government announced as part of its green energy push, which it hopes will bring thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of investment to Canadas biggest energyconsuming province.

Ottawabased Wind Works said its Ontario wind projects, all of them fairly small, will be built over the next two or three years at a cost of about $250 million US $248 million. The biggest is the Ganaraska Wind Park, a 20 megawatt project in Orono, Ontario.

The company is also pursuing deals in Germany and the United States.

This is very important for us now that we have power contracts for the first of these markets, the Ontario market, Chief Executive Ingo Stuckmann said an interview with Reuters.

Our strategy is to keep some of the projects for ourselves and sell a couple of them off. So we will not build everything ourselves, he said.

Solar, wind, water and biofuel projects announced under the Ontario green energy program so far will generate 2,500 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 600,000 homes.

Its a very smart move by the Ontario government in my view, Stuckmann said by telephone from Germany. In a couple of years it would just be too late and all those jobs would go to other states and provinces that come up with those programs.

He said he expects Ontario may award contracts for another 1,700 MW to 2,000 MW of power, likely toward the end of the summer months. Wind Works is bidding for contracts comprising some 110 MW of this, which would require another $350 million in investment over the next two or three years.

Ontario plans to phase out all coalfired power stations by 2014 and replace them with cleaner energy sources, prompting it last October to offer the most generous set of feedin tariffs in North America for green energy.

The provinces Green Energy Act guarantees sellers of renewable power fixed, abovemarket prices for 20 years to feed their production into the electricity grid.

The incentives include a local content rule for a percentage of turbines to be manufactured in Ontario, and Stuckmann said Wind Works will be talking to manufacturers now that the power contracts have been awarded.

He said the company expects to make announcements soon regarding projects in the United States and Germany.

Wind Works signed an agreement in March with a New Yorkbased firm for a $10 million equity line of credit. The company is currently carrying out a private placement for $2 million.

Stuckmann said the company continues to mull a listing on a senior exchange, in Toronto or in the United States.