BluEarth Renewables Inc. has announced that its Bull Creek Wind Project is now feeding the Alberta electricity grid. The project, the first of BluEarth’s to go live in the province, is located near Provost. The company along with more than 80 stakeholders celebrated the commissioning late last week.

Electricity generated by Bull Creek will be sold to 25 Alberta school boards. Represented by the Alberta Schools Commodity Purchasing Consortium (CPC), the organization ran a competitive process to select a renewable power developer to provide its members with an option for a long-term, low-impact affordable source of electricity. BluEarth was selected as the partner to develop a project to meet the CPC's requirements.

"Today's celebration is the result of many years of commitment, persistence, team-work, and visionary leadership on the part of the Alberta Schools Commodity Purchasing Consortium," said Grant Arnold, president and CEO at BluEarth.

"We are proud to be a part of this important project demonstrating the leadership and innovation for positive environmental impact as your elected School Board trustees," said Tracy McKinnon, chair of the Fort McMurray Catholic Board of Education. "We continually strive to recognize our responsibility in protecting our environment through educating our young people to become environmental stewards, and this project is one example of how this can be accomplished."

Bull Creek has a nameplate capacity of 29.2 MW, which supplies enough clean, renewable energy to power approximately 500 Alberta school facilities. During construction, Bull Creek provided more than 60,000 worker hours of employment with a peak of approximately 60 onsite jobs. There are also four permanent operating positions that have been created. In addition, over $25 million was invested into the provincial economy during construction.

“Wind power enables participating school boards to take advantage of the long-term, predictable electricity costs, with no future fuel-price risk," said François Gagnon, chair of the CPC. "In addition, it limits our exposure to potential increases in costs associated with greenhouse gas pollution from traditional sources of energy production."