“uåX˜äŠÊ˜·³Ç

An Irish renewable energy company is erecting wind speed measurement towers at five sites in the Peace region of British Columbia (BC) and plans to install another seven at other potential project locations in the area next year. Bertan Atalay of Finavera Renewables says the company sees significant growth potential in the west coast province, which currently has no installed wind power capacity. "For the last five years, BC has been a net importer of energy. This, coupled with large amounts of hydro power, places BC in a perfectly synergetic position to capitalise on wind energy and become a net exporter again," says Atalay. In addition to its Peace projects, Finavera is developing six wind projects in the Cascades region of the province's southern interior. The company is also working on getting listed on the TSX Venture Exchange, the junior of two national stock exchanges in Canada. It is in the process of completing a reverse takeover of Vancouver's Cascade Minerals, a publicly listed capital pool company with no assets other than cash and no commercial operations. A reverse takeover of Cascade provides "an efficient and economic way" to list on the exchange, says Finavera. "A market the size of the TSX-V will give us the flexibility to continue to raise capital as we deliver key project milestones. Given that an increasing element of our asset base is now in Canada, the local market will be in a better position to quickly assess the potential of these assets," says Finavera boss, Jason Bak. Finavera Renewables is developing two wind power projects with a combined capacity of 180 MW in Ireland and several wave energy projects worldwide.