Canada cancels German wind farm project

Author: Dimitri Lagun
Date: 16.07.2018

53 million euros investment volume were planned

The Doing Business Index describes the business conditions that are available to companies in each country. The Index covers everything from the duration of the approval process to the protection of investors. Canada is currently 18th and thus far ahead of Germany, Austria, France and Switzerland.

But there lies a shadow on the good ranking of Canada. In recent days, wind farm operator WPD has realized that it is not so easy to gain a foothold in Canada. The company sees the reason for its failure in the change of government in the province of Ontario.

On July 10 the new provincial government announced that they have given priority to three selected points, and one of them is to close the WDP wind farm project “White Pines”. Indeed the government announced in advance of the election that there should be no more permits for new wind farms, but that already approved parks are also affected was announced only after the election.

A big shock for the WPD. The plan was to build 29 wind turbines. This number was reduced to nine in the approval process. Overall, the investment volume is 53 million euros. The plant supplier is the German company Senvion. The WPD Canada manager said taxpayers expect to incur more than $ 100 million of costs. The new government believes that wind farms have a negative impact on the landscape.

“We have been working on the project ‘White Pines’ for almost ten years. All the necessary permits are in place and final, the grid connection is secured, a feed contract for the power supply has been signed and the financing agreements have been concluded, ” said Hartmut Brösamle, WPD board member, to the Handelsblatt.

“In our view, Canada has been a location with highest investment security so far. The fact that the new government of Ontario wants to prevent an already approved project, which is nearing completion, surprised us very much. We hope that the new government will change their mind and give us the legitimate expectation that all investors in Canada expect, “Brösamle said.

But WPD is not the only company affected by the news. The project is being financed by KfW and Stadtwerke München.