Canada's largest wind project online

SAULT STE. MARIE, Ontario, Nov. 27 (UPI) -- The largest wind power project in Canada has come online, leading the country in doubling its wind energy capacity over the past year by 657 megawatts.

The second phase of the Prince Wind Energy Project was completed Nov. 19, and now the 189 megawatt wind farm northwest of Ontario, is Canada's largest.

The 126-turbine project on 20,000 acres will sell its power to the government of Ontario under a 20-year supply agreement, according to a release by Brookfield Power, the project's developer.

"Ontario is now Canada's leading wind power generator thanks in part to the opening today of the Prince wind farm," said Ontario Energy Minister Dwight Duncan.

More than $1 billion has been invested in Canada's wind power industry in 2006, which has doubled installed wind capacity to 1,341 megawatts, according to the Canadian Wind Energy Association.

Investment in the sector this year broke the record of 240 megawatts set in 2005.

"Wind energy is an emerging Canadian success story and 2006 will be remembered as the year that our country first began to seriously capture the economic and environmental benefits of wind energy deployment," said Robert Hornung, president of the Canadian Wind Energy Association.

"Canada is on the cusp of a wind energy boom as provincial governments are now targeting to have a minimum of 10,000 megawatts of installed wind energy capacity in place by 2015," he said.