Bird Construction Inc. is working with Capstone Infrastructure Corporation in Alberta, a pioneer in renewable energy. This cooperation concerns two wind power projects. Bird wins an EPC contract for them.
Capstone is a Canadian renewable energy investment company. It has 290 MW of renewable assets under construction, all based in Canada. 240 MW are dedicated to wind power.
Bird and Capstone cooperate in Alberta
The Buffalo Atlee project is the result of close collaboration with the Government of Alberta in the procurement of the electricity program. It will have a capacity of 48 MW.
To ensure the longevity of the Wild Rose 2 project, the company has secured the sale of power to the City of Edmonton (78 MW over 20 years) and to Pembina Pipeline Corporation.
These two parks will be monitored by Bird Construction Inc. The latter is a Canadian company that accompanies industrial, energy and civil projects. It will provide the engineering, maintenance and planning requirements for the plants.
Teri McKibbon, Bird’s CEO, is pleased:
“We are excited to work with Capstone to deliver these important renewable energy projects. We look forward to leveraging Bird’s extensive self-performing capabilities to build our growing portfolio of future energy projects as we continue to expand and diversify our work programs across the country.”
Alberta is a region that is seeing a lot of development in its territory. Renewable energy production is expected to double in the next two years. A scenario that the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) had not foreseen. In fact, it expects a total capacity of 1,000 MW in the region this year.
Blake Shaffer, assistant professor of economics at the University of Calgary, comments:
“We are reaching this level 19 years ahead of schedule. There’s a real ramp-up in solar and continued interest in wind projects.”
As a result, Alberta will see nearly $1 billion in construction projects this year alone. Thus, the solar production in Alberta alone will cover 10% of the province’s energy needs.
The region is attracting many investors such as Capstone, and notably EDF which wants to double the wind capacity of its Bull Trail wind farm or Dunmore Solar which will install 216 MW of solar assets by 2023.
