Private-power firm Pattern Energy Group LP has begun construction of its $400-million Meikle wind energy project near Tumbler Ridge at the right time to deliver a financial boost just when the community needs it.

Meikle, one of 20 independent power projects granted purchase contracts in 2010 by BC Hydro from a 2008 tender for renewable power, will be B.C.’s biggest wind farm when it starts spinning out electricity toward the end of 2016.

The project will also generate 175 construction jobs in a community that has lost more than 700 due to coal mine closures.

It won’t replace a lot of the jobs the community has lost, but the Meikle project will offer meaningful help to workers who haven’t been able to find work in fly-in/fly-out camps attached to energy-related developments, said Jordan Wall, Tumbler Ridge’s economic development officer.

He added that the work is even more important considering layoffs have begun in Alberta’s oilsands.

The farm will have only nine long-term operating jobs, but Wall noted they are secure jobs for the 25-year term of Pattern’s contract with BC Hydro.

Pattern chief executive Michael Garland said the company appreciates Tumbler Ridge’s predicament and will do what it can to hire and buy locally for the construction phase.

Otherwise, San-Francisco-headquartered Garland said he “(loves) the idea of being in British Columbia.”

Meikle has an advantageous location in the West, and he considers it to be a natural extension of existing Canadian operations, which include two facilities in southern Ontario and one in Manitoba.

Pattern’s plan for Meikle is to put up 61 turbines with 185 megawatts of generating capacity, capable of delivering 588 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year to BC Hydro — enough to power 54,000 homes. It represents a 38-per-cent increase in the amount of BC Hydro’s capacity to generate electricity from wind.

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