The new wind farm awaiting final approval in the St. Joseph area would be the richest in Canada with landowners paid $10,500 per year for every turbine on their land.

BowArk Energy will also pay out a one-time bonus of $195 per acre, or an average of $29,000 each, to all landowners in the vicinity, and not just those getting wind turbines. About 300 landowners would share in the bonus payments.

"Most wind development companies don't do it like this," said Brad Sparkes, president and CEO of BowArk Energy in Calgary, the company behind the project. "We're trying to make our landowners feel like owners in this."

No wonder local politicians and residents are giddy at the prospect. The project is considerably richer than one in St. Leon where landowners are paid $6,500 per turbine annually. The turbines planned for the St. Joseph area have longer blades and produce more energy.

BowArk was a partner in St. Leon but is spearheading this one. Additional expertise and financial backing come from Babcock and Brown Power, an Australian firm and the fourth-largest wind energy company in the world.

Manitoba Hydro announced this week it had chosen BowArk from more than 80 wind-farm proposals in Manitoba. The two sides will now sit down for final negotiations but that is expected to be just a matter of tweaking BowArk's proposed agreement.

The big question is which BowArk proposal Manitoba Hydro will choose.

It's a Door No. 1 (100 megawatts), Door No. 2 (200 megawatts), and Door No. 3 (300 megawatts) scenario. If Manitoba Hydro chooses the largest one, the above-mentioned bonus payments will be triggered.

That proposal is for 120 turbines at a cost of $750 million over an area of about 110 square kilometres.

Roger Vermette, reeve for the Rural Municipality of Montcalm, was pleasantly surprised Manitoba Hydro is considering the 300-megawatt proposal. It would add an estimated $750,000 per year in tax revenue to the RM's coffers, plus $750,000 in provincial education taxes, Vermette said.

"It's the best economic activity you could have in this area. We have no manufacturing jobs. We just have agriculture," Vermette said.

Wind-farm opponents were surprised at the scale of wind farm being pondered.

"(BowArk) said there would be only 63 turbines, at an open house, and now it's a few more," said Todd Braun, who leads a group of about two dozen residents who have concerns about wind-farm development.

"I think that's going to shock a few people."

Many in the concerned citizens group like Braun are small landholders who receive little or no monetary compensation from wind turbines but may have them installed near their homes. Their concerns include noise from wind turbines, night lights installed so airplanes can see turbines, and the general aesthetics of the landscape.

"There's a big difference between having wind turbines on your land and having them near your house," he said. Braun maintained that many landowners in his area live in nearby towns and rent out their land for crop production.

Sparkes said it depended which open house Braun attended.

Four years ago BowArk was talking about just a 100-megawatt project but that has been ramped up in the last two years.

Sparkes said the smallest distance between one of the wind turbines and a house will be 640 metres, and that will be the case with two houses. The RM stipulates that wind turbines be at least 500 metres away from any homes. The concerned citizens want to see a minimum distance of one kilometre.

Most turbines will be about a kilometre away from houses, Sparkes maintained.

One of the luxuries of the area, he said, is all the space. "Most places in Canada you can't spread the turbines out like this," Sparkes said.

The sound from wind turbines from 500 metres away will be kept to 40 decibels or lower, about the sound of a refrigerator, he said.

BowArk is holding an open house in St. Joseph next Tuesday, April 8, at the community hall in St. Joseph. St. Joseph is about 80 kilometres south of Winnipeg.

Operation of the wind farm is at least two years away.