K2 Wind Power Project Celebrates Official Opening
One of Canada’s largest wind facilities, located in southwestern Ontario’s Township of Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh (ACW), held an official opening earlier this month. The facility is expected to generate clean energy for approximately 100,000 Ontario homes annually.
Commissioning the facility has allowed Canada to surpass 10 gigawatts (GW) of installed wind energy capacity, making it the seventh country in the world to reach this level of wind power capacity, according to the Canadian Wind Energy Association.
While in construction, K2 Wind was one of the largest infrastructure projects in Ontario. During its 18-month construction period, the project averaged over 300 workers on site. At peak construction, more than 500 workers were employed by the project.
The facility’s wind turbine components were manufactured in Ontario. A total of 700 turbine tower sections were produced in Windsor by CS Wind and the 420 blades were built in Tillsonburg by Siemens, directly supporting over 800 manufacturing jobs in Ontario. K2 Wind expects to have approximately 20 full-time operations and maintenance employees, along with an additional 10 seasonal positions.
K2 Wind is composed of 140 Siemens 2.3 MW wind turbines and operates under a 20-year PPA with the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO).
