Background

In July 2022, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) purchased 514.6-megawatts project Buffalo Plains Wind Farm. CIP is a fund management company with ten energy infrastructure funds and more than EUR 19 billion in commitments under management. CIP is a multinational team with extensive experience and knowledge within renewable technologies. CIP has investments in utility scale renewable assets across North America, Western Europe, and Asia Pacific. Current investments include a wide range of energy infrastructure assets including offshore wind, onshore wind, offshore power transmission, biomass and energy-from-waste, and solar PV investments.

PUBLIC CONSULTATION:

We are committed to an open and transparent consultation process in accordance with the Alberta Utilities Commission Rule 007. In March 2019, we held our first open house to gather feedback about the proposed Project. We took the feedback received from the community and integrated it into our initial project design. In November 2019, we presented our initial project design to the community and gathered further feedback. This feedback was taken into consideration and wherever applicable and feasible project adjustments were made. These adjustment included turbine relocation and movement and in some cases turbine removal. The road design was adjusted based on specific stakeholder feedback. In addition, we incorporated a 2km setback from the Village of Lomond as requested by stakeholders and community members. The project conception plan originally included 125 turbines and has been reduced to 83 wind turbines. These adjustments have been conveyed to stakeholders through mail out packages and newsletters as well as through our website. In October 2020 we presented the final project design to the community during our online information session. A copy of the mail out packages and newsletters can be found in the download section of our website.

Furthermore, we have responded to the community’s request for further community value by adding a Community Vibrancy Fund that will contribute funds directly into the Village of Lomond to contribute to community initiatives. In addition to this program our Green Option Program was released to provide yearly benefit to stakeholders living within 2km of a Buffalo Plains wind turbine. These community value programs were presented to the community on January 25th, 2020 at a community breakfast held by Buffalo Plains Wind Farm.

We are committed to regularly updating stakeholders on the project through mail out packages (Project Specific Information Packages), newsletters and through our website which has the most up to date news on the project. We are continuing to gather feedback from the community through phone or in person consultation and open houses.

We truly appreciate the feedback we have received so far and encourage the community and stakeholder to provide us with further feedback. Buffalo Plains Wind Farm will provide a comprehensive summary of stakeholder feedback as part of our application with the AUC. To learn more about the AUC application and review process, please visit the AUC’s website at auc.ab.ca.