Power purchase agreement finalised for 20 MW Grand Manan Island project

Eastern Wind Power has finalised a 20-year power purchase agreement with New Brunswick Power for the output of a 20 MW wind power project to be installed at Dark Harbour on the western coast of Grand Manan Island about 35 kilometres from the mainland in the Bay of Fundy. Eastern Wind Power's project was selected from a total of five bidders in a request for proposals issued by the utility back in December 2003. The agreement has confidentiality provisions that prohibit the disclosure of price and capacity factor. But the C$30 million project is expected to produce more than C$90 million in revenues over the contract term. The company is also in "advanced negotiations" with several large Canadian financial institutions to provide project financing. Eastern Wind, based in New Brunswick, is a subsidiary of Vancouver's Western Wind Energy Inc, which has wind farms under development in California and Arizona.