North Bay is weighing in on the search for renewable green energy by inviting prospective wind energy companies into the area.
Terry Wojick, a North Bay-based wind energy consultant, has been negotiating for the past few months with five or six major companies interested in potential sites.
Two or three are "very serious" about conducting wind studies in the North Bay-Mattawa-Temagami area, with the rest taking a "cursory look." He was reluctant to disclose their identities since no agreements have been signed yet.
Some sites are in unorganized rural townships meaning fewer planning regulatory hurdles to get wind projects up.
Wojick says the North Bay-Temagami-Mattawa area boast an abundance of transmission lines, large rural tracts of unpopulated Crown land and areas of high elevation.
"The winds off the Great Lakes and Lake Nipissing are what's attracting people to look at various sites," says Jay Aspin, Team Northern Ontario export adviser, who has spent the past year attempting to stimulate interest from the private sector.
The most advanced project to date involves a pending agreement between The City of North Bay and West Wind Development of Toronto, which Wojick is also participating in.
The Toronto-based consortium was the successful bidder from the city's RFP process.
Project funding will come from a $100,000 green-energy grant from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
Both parties are close to finalizing a contract to erect a meteorological tower on Old Callander Road for a wind assessment study sometime in November.
The industry standard for sustained wind speed in a given area is approximately 25 kilometres per hour average for a year.
Wojick says airport wind data is "encouraging," but "we need to get that first (meterological) tower up to get that benchmark."
If the wind regime proves economical, it could be two years before any wind farm construction would take place. A full-year of study would be followed by another year of permitting and environmental assessment.
Peter Bullock, the city's environmental services manager, says the city's role in the project, which includes North Bay Hydro, has yet to be determined.
"At this point in time, it's attempting to stimulate some interest in the area to look at matters of economic development and we're utilizing the resources of the city to attempt to facilitate companies to look at this area."
