Brooke-Alvinston residents are being invited to have their say on Thursday on the proposed Strathroy Wind Development project.
A public information session will take place from 4 p.m. until 8 p.m. at the Brooke-Alvinston-Inwood Community Centre Complex.
Venfor Inc. wants to build up to 40 turbines, split between the municipality and neighbouring Adelaide Metcalfe.
Founding Shareholder Peter Budd said the turbines would be spread out, and not concentrated within a single area.
He said the project would add a combined 300 megawatts to the province's electricity grid, which is struggling to keep up with demand.
"The 300 megawatts is about one tenth of the shortage that Ontario experiences at its peak days," said Budd. "We import, from the United States mainly, 2,000 to 3,000 megawatts of power when it is a hot peak summer day. We've had several of those this summer. We've had what are called urgent appeals or emergency events which the Independent System Operator (ISO) calls when we're short. So, Ontario is in that position where it is taking steps, and that's what this procurement is in response to."
Budd said both Brooke-Alvinston and Adelaide Metcalfe would benefit greatly from the turbines.
"They would make some money out of it through a community benefits agreement," he said. "Between the taxes and the agreement, it would probably average out over a 20 year period to around $1 million per year. I thought that might be useful for a local farming municipality that needs the revenue to keep up the roads and so forth."
Budd said there's still a lot of background work to be done before we see any major construction activity take place.
"Whoever our major partner will be, because we will partner with a deep balance sheet company to effect it, would be filing likely in June of 2026 in what's called the LT2 second window," said Budd. "Likely, it would take about six months for the government to come to a conclusion and the cabinet will listen to the recommendations of the ISO."
He said by 2027, they would know whether the bid is successful.
"If it did win in 2027, it takes about three years to build these small projects," he said. "You have to do a year of wind measurement, for sure, and then you have to do all of the appropriate studies which are very strict. And, it should be that way. Then the construction can start after all of the micro-siting is done so that the project would reach what we call a commercial operation date, probably in 2030 or 2031."
A similar public meeting was also held in Adelaide Metcalfe on Wednesday.