CALGARY, Alberta, Dec. 17, 2003 — TransAlta Corp., through its subsidiary Vision Quest Windelectric Inc., announced approval and initiation of the 68-MW Summerview Wind Farm.
The project will cost $95 million. Construction will start immediately with completion scheduled for July 2004.
“Wind energy gives TransAlta an excellent opportunity to quickly grow our renewable generation capacity while taking advantage of the right market conditions,” says Steve Snyder, TransAlta President and CEO. “Summerview takes us one step closer to our long-term target of ten per cent of capacity from renewable energy.”
The Summerview Wind Farm will include 38 Vestas V80, 1.8 MW wind turbines. Located along Highway 785 near Pincher Creek, Alberta, Summerview will be Vision Quest’s fifth wind farm. Local economic benefits will include employment, local purchases and services, and municipal tax revenues. Vision Quest is currently negotiating contracts with parties interested in purchasing green power.
TransAlta’s renewable energy portfolio includes 83-MW of wind energy through Vision Quest and 163-MW of geothermal energy in California through a 50 per cent interest in CE Generation LLC. When Summerview is complete, TransAlta will have 314-MW of renewable energy capacity.
Vision Quest Windelectric is an independent subsidiary of TransAlta, and is Canada’s largest wind energy supplier. Vision Quest is active in Alberta as a generator, holds electricity retailer licenses in Ontario, and has interests in wind power projects in a number of other provinces. Vision Quest sells Green Energy® Electricity and Green Energy® Tags which are green power products from pure wind energy. For more information, see www.greenenergy.com.
TransAlta is among Canada’s largest non-regulated power generation and wholesale marketing companies. We have close to $9 billion in coal-fired, gas-fired, hydro and renewable generation assets in Canada, the U.S., Mexico and Australia. With approximately 10,000 megawatts of capacity either in operation, under construction or in development, our focus is to efficiently operate our assets in order to provide our wholesale customers with a reliable, low-cost source of power.
