A Quebec energy company that has built up a wind power business in France is bringing that expertise to Canada to take advantage of Ontario's interest in alternative sources of electricity. Boralex Inc. has acquired rights to develop nine wind farms in Windsor and Essex County in southwestern Ontario.

A Quebec energy company that has built up a wind power business in France is bringing that expertise to Canada to take advantage of Ontario's interest in alternative sources of electricity.

Boralex Inc. has acquired rights to develop nine wind farms in Windsor and Essex County in southwestern Ontario. When the projects are complete by 2009, they will generate a total of 90 megawatts of power.

That is enough to power 18,000 homes and will double the company's wind-generating capacity.

Financial details were not disclosed and the deal must clear environmental assessments before it closes. Boralex's partner in the projects will be privately owned Gengrowth Renewables Inc., which will build the plants that Boralex will operate.

Boralex shares rose 6 per cent yesterday on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The company generates 89 megawatts of power at six wind farms in France and expects to have another 12 megawatts on stream by the end of the month. It also operates six power stations in Maine and New York that run on wood residue, as well as eight small hydroelectric plants in Quebec, France and New York and a natural-gas-fired plant in France. The total capacity of the plants is 333 megawatts.

On top of that, Boralex manages 10 power stations owned by Boralex Power Income Fund, a trust that was spun off in 2002. Boralex still holds a 23-per-cent interest.

The investment in Ontario is a change from three years ago when Boralex was wary about the unregulated nature of Ontario's alternative energy market, said Jamie Horvat, a portfolio manager who helps run the AGF Canadian Small Cap Fund, which holds more than one million Boralex shares.

"With the greening of energy and the movement to get away from coal plants in Ontario, this is a positive move for [Boralex] to diversify their assets and get a little bit more Canadian exposure," Mr. Horvat said.

When the Liberal McGuinty government took office in 2003, they promised to scrap the coal-burning generating plants and replace them with wind power, and offered a subsidy in the form of high electricity prices.

It would pay just under 8 cents a kilowatt-hour for electricity generated by big wind farms, and 11 cents for power from small farms, compared with the mere 3.3 cents received by Ontario Power Generation.

National Bank Financial analyst Hugues Bourgeois said Kingsey Falls, Que.-based Boralex looks poised to become a major player in Canadian wind power.

"They've become very good wind power operators," he said. "They've fine-tuned their operational expertise over the last four years [in France] and I think they can import that into North America."

Boralex spokeswoman Patricia Lemaire said the company intends to continue its expansion into Canadian markets such as British Columbia and Ontario and intends to double its current operating capacity from all sources, not just wind power, by 2010.

The company will be sending a bid to Hydro-Quebec Distribution, which recently issued a call for tenders due in September for the purchase of 2,000 megawatts of wind power, she said.

Web link: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.2...