Prince George, BC –  Construction is set to start late spring or early summer on a wind farm in the community of Taylor, near Fort St. John.

The project is one of three new farms for BC – including the first ever to be built in the Okanagan, near West Kelowna and Summerland – that together, BC Hydro says, will add about 45 megawatts of to the provincial electricity grid.  That’s enough electricity to power 14-thousand homes per year.

The developer, Zero Emission Energy Developments Inc, says each project will create between 25 and 50 jobs during the 18-month construction period.

Taylor’s 15-megawatt Septimus Creek Wind Farm will employ between five and 10 full- and part-time employees when it’s complete, for operations and maintenance.

BC currently has four operating wind farms under electricty purchase agreements with BC Hydro – three in the Peace Region and one on Vancouver Island:

• the 144-megawatt Dokie Wind Energy project near Chetwynd
• the 102-megawatt Bear Mountain Wind project near Dawson Creek
• the 142-megawatt Quality Wind project near Tumbler Ridge, and
• the 99-megawatt Cape Scott Wind Farm on the northern tip of Vancouver Island

A 185-megawatt project is under construction near Tumbler Ridge and is expected to start producing power in late 2016.