Greengate Power Corporation (Greengate) is a Canadian

energy company The energy industry is the totality of all of the industries involved in the production and sale of energy, including fuel extraction, manufacturing, refining and distribution. Modern society consumes large amounts of fuel, and the energy indust ...

focused on

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

in Alberta. Greengate's focus in the past was in large, utility scale

wind Wind is the natural movement of air or other gases relative to a planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting a few hou ...

projects and has recently developed solar projects.

Summary of activity

Greengate's first project, the 150

megawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units, International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), ...

(MW) Halkirk I Wind Project, was completed in 2012. It was central

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

's first wind project, first wind project approved by the

Alberta Utilities Commission The Ministry of Energy is a Cabinet-level agency of the government of the Canadian province of Alberta responsible for coordinating policy relating to the development of mineral and energy resources. It is also responsible for assessing and colle ...

(AUC) and, at the time of construction, the province's largest wind project, located in the

County of Paintearth The County of Paintearth No. 18 is a municipal district in east central Alberta, Canada. Located in Census Division No. 7, its municipal office is located southeast of the Town of Castor near the intersection of Highway 12 and Highway 36. ...

, east of Stettler. It supplies enough electricity to power approximately 50,000 homes. Unlike most other planned wind energy projects in Alberta, the project connected into Alberta's existing transmission system without any system upgrades while other developers wait for transmission upgrades. The company acquired all of the land needed to build the project, received approval from the

Alberta Electric System Operator The Alberta Electric System Operator, (AESO), is the non-profit organization responsible for operating Alberta, Canada's power grid. AESO oversees the planning and operation of the Alberta Interconnected Electric System (AIES) in a "safe, reliable, ...

(AESO) to connect the project into the transmission grid, utilizing the existing transmission system without the need of major transmission upgrades. Once it was "

shovel ready In politics, a shovel ready construction project (usually larger-scale infrastructure) is where planning and engineering is advanced enough that—with sufficient funding—construction can begin within a very short time. The term was popularized ...

" the project was sold to Capital Power corporation. Greengate's second project was the Blackspring Ridge I Wind Project, with a total generating capacity of 300 MW, upon completion in 2013, BSR was the largest wind farm in Canada and remains the largest in Alberta. Again Greengate brought this project through all the stages of development and then sold it shovel ready, this time to

EDF EN Canada EDF may refer to: Organisations * Eclaireurs de France, a French Scouting association * Education for Development Foundation, a Thai charity * Électricité de France, a French energy company ** EDF Energy, their British subsidiary ** EDF Luminus, ...

and

Enbridge Enbridge Inc. is a multinational pipeline and energy company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Enbridge owns and operates pipelines throughout Canada and the United States, transporting crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids. ...

. The

California Public Utilities Commission The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC or PUC) is a regulatory agency that regulates privately owned public utilities in the state of California, including electric power, telecommunications, natural gas and water companies. In additi ...

approved three 20-year

power purchase agreement A power purchase agreement (PPA), or electricity power agreement, is a contract between two parties, one which generates electricity (the seller) and one which is looking to purchase electricity (the buyer). The PPA defines all of the commercial te ...

s (PPA) for a total of 450 MW in new wind energy generation between

Pacific Gas and Electric Company The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is an American investor-owned utility (IOU). The company is headquartered in the Pacific Gas & Electric Building, in San Francisco, California. PG&E provides natural gas and electricity to 5.2 milli ...

(PG&E) and Greengate's Halkirk I Wind Project LP, Blackspring Ridge IA Wind Project LP and Blackspring Ridge IB Wind Project LP. The PPAs relate to the purchase and sale of renewable energy credits (RECs) generated by the 150 (MW) Halkirk I project and 300 MW Blackspring Ridge I Wind Project. This is the third-largest wind energy transaction ever executed by a California utility. Greengate closed a $10.8 million private placement financing to be funded in two

tranche In structured finance, a tranche is one of a number of related securities offered as part of the same transaction. In the financial sense of the word, each bond is a different slice of the deal's risk. Transaction documentation (see indenture) u ...

s, with the first raising gross proceeds of $5.8 million in September 2010 and the balance upon future milestones, which are likely to be achieved in March 2011.

References

{{reflist Energy companies of Canada