CORNWALL, Ontario – The United Counties is getting nearly $1.7 million to pay for the reconstruction of a road that was damaged during creation of a wind farm.
Settlement terms were finalized Monday between the counties, North and South Dundas as well as the company that built the massive wind farm near Brinston.
Before construction of the wind farm started, county council and EDP Renewables entered into an extensive road user agreement to ensure that the municipality would be paid for damaged infrastructure.
“Today’s settlement with EDP has enabled us to protect our County and municipal roads system,” said Warden Eric Duncan. “We wanted to make sure taxpayers in SDG were compensated for any damaged roads and infrastructure during the construction, and this agreement does just that.”
In addition to SDG’s settlement of $1.697 million, the Municipality of South Dundas will receive $868,500 and the Township of North Dundas will receive $118,590 for local roads compensation.
“This money provides fair compensation for the deterioration to the roads,” said county engineer Benjamin de Haan. “The Counties appreciate the co-operation and corporate responsibility shown by EDP throughout the evaluation process.”
The wind farm, the company’s first in Canada, features 10 Siemens three megawatt wind turbines, each with a 113-meter rotor perched on a 99.5-meter tower.
The Ontario Power Authority (OPA) is purchasing the wind farm’s output via a feed-in tariff contract that was awarded in 2010.
