SaskPower looking at another 13 wind projects

As one major wind-power project nears completion on the west side of the province, a slew of new wind proposals are in the works.

Over the next decade, SaskPower is looking to purchase up to 45 megawatts of electricity from companies with small, environmentally-friendly power plants.

In the latest round of proposals designed to generate 32 megawatts SaskPower recently received 17 applications and 13 of them are for wind power stations.

None of the new wind projects would be anywhere near as big as the 150 megawatt Centennial wind power station that's going up 25 kilometres southeast of Swift Current.

SaskPower is limiting the proposals to a maximum of 25 megawatts for any one proposal.

A spokesperson for Vector Wind Energy, one of the companies that wants to move into Saskatchewan, believes it could be the start of something big.

"The wind resource in Saskatchewan is better, I think, than anywhere in the country," said Vector's Brian Barr.

SaskPower's Brian Mohr said the Crown utiliity is looking for ways to replace outdated facilities.

According to Mohr, the program is also about ideas, and it may identify new sources of power.

"We are going to incorporate that information into our upcoming decisions for the post-2010 generation needs," he said.

An independent auditor is now looking at the 17 ideas to generate "green" power. Three of the non-wind projects would use heat recovered from other industrial process to drive steam turbines. One "biomasss" project involves burning waste materials such as wood chips to generate power.

Agreements will be signed in 2006.