Wind Sites Canada Bow Lake Wind Farm Ontario The Project The proposed Bow Lake Wind Farm is a wind energy project which will be constructed predominantly on Crown land within the Townships of Smilsky and Peever in the district of Algoma. The site is located approximately 80 km north west of Sault Ste Marie Ontario close to the eastern edge of Lake Superior and south of the Montreal River. It lies within the Batchewana First Nations territory.   View Bow Lake in a larger map The project covers an area of approximately 25 sq km centered on Bow Lake itself. Crown Land Squares for the Bow Lake Project Much of the project area is forested and is currently being managed under a commercial forest management plan with selective felling being undertaken over much of the proposed site. The area also has a long history of renewable energy generation dating back to the 1930's. The Montreal River immediately to the north of the site incorporates a number of hydro electric dams owned and operated by Brookfield Renewable Power. As a consequence of this there are a considerable number of forest access tracks both accessing and crossing the site,as well as substantial service roads maintained for the dam access. The proposal uses many of these existing logging and hydro electric dam roads. These both minimize infrastructure costs and reduces potential environmental impacts. The hydro electric dams along the river are serviced by two 115kV high-voltage transmission circuits running east west immediately north of the site, and on toward the 230kV substation at the MacKay dam and generating station.  The wind farm is proposed to connect into these existing high-voltage lines which lie less than 1km from the edge of the site. Existing 115KV High Voltage Lines The project is designed to be built in two phases, Bow Lake 1 and Bow Lake 2 at 20MW and 40MW respectively. This matches currently available grid capacity on adjacent 115kV and 230kV lines (60MW in total). The proposed turbines for the project will be multi megawatt machines of around 2 -2.5MW capacity each.  Each turbine will have a rotor diameter and hub height of around 100metres.   Siemens 2.3MW 82.4m Rotor 70m Hub The Bow Lake Wind Farm has been awarded 60MW of ‘FIT contracts’ in the recent Ontario Power Authority competition and subject to completion of all the required environmental surveys and award of all relevant permits Bow Lake Phase 1 is currently scheduled to enter construction in 2011, and Bow Lake Phase 2 in 2012.   Project Assessments A number of different possible impacts are considered during the environmental impact assessment of a wind farm. These cover a wide range of topics from the potential impacts on wildlife (e.g. due to habitat loss), on water quality (e.g. resulting from possible sediment run off), on nearby residences (e.g. due to noise or shadow flicker), and also on the amenity of other land users both on and off the site (e.g. visual impacts on tourist locations). For this reason a number of different surveys are undertaken and reported using different specialists. Details of these ecological and other surveys will be posted as they become available. The general findings of the surveys completed to date have been positive, for example the ecological surveys including avian and bat assessments which have been ongoing for a number of years indicate environmental impacts from the wind farm will be low with appropriate mitigation measures in place. One of the possible impacts that often creates the most debate is that of visibility. Wind turbines are by their nature and by virtue of the resource they are collecting large devices. They need to be large in order to capture what is a relatively low density resource (the air/wind), and they have to be sited in exposed locations where that wind is strongest. Visual impacts are discussed further here. REA and Consultation Permit applications for the two phases will be made separately through the Renewable Energy Approvals (REA) process. The consultation phase for the Phase 1 REA application has now commenced. The second phase is anticipated to go for Public Consultation early in Spring 2011. Additional applications will also be required for aggregate licences, additional temporary meteorological towers and other access road works and these will run in parallel with the REA process. For information on additional Permits click here. Consultation with the stakeholders is ongoing and a number of public events are being planned for both Phase 1 and Phase 2 in the coming months. Times and venues for these information days will be advertised locally and on this site. Links: Visual Assessment Wind Monitoring DRAFT Class EA Phase 1 Road Upgrades Aggregate Pits Geotechnical Investigations   Click on the following links to be directed to a page dedicated to each phase. REA Phase 1 REA Phase 2   Questions: For further information or queries on the Bow Lake Wind Farm please feel free to contact us via our Project Consultants MK Ince, via the dedicated email address: bowlake@dpenergy.com  or directly via one of the contacts below. A number of specific questions have been raised in relation to the Bow Lake proposal and a Q&A page has been created to answer these queries. Click on the link below to be directed to this page. Questions and Answer   Contacts: Project Consultants M.K. Ince and Associates Ltd. Thomas Bernacki, P.Eng. 11 Cross St., Dundas, ON L9H 2R3 Phone: 905-628-0077 Fax: 905-628-1329 E-mail: bowlake@mkince.ca http://www.mkince.ca Vortex Wind Power Peter Harte           Email: peter.harte@vortexwind.ca Mobile: +353 87 2463433 Kevin O’Donovan        Email: kevin.odonovan@vortexwind.ca Mobile: +353 86 82 11764 DP Energy Simon De Pietro  Email: simon.depietro@dpenergy.com Mobile: +353 87 9722399