‘Ontario’ Project
According to Samsung C&T on December 17, North Kent Wind One is scheduled to be completed in May next year. It is the 10th and last subproject of the Canada Ontario Project, which is the largest overseas project for new and renewable energy development of South Korean companies.
The Ontario Project, which has been led by Samsung C&T since 2010, is to build wind and solar power generation plants in 10 areas located in Ontario, Canada. North Kent Wind One is to build a wind power plant with a capacity of 100 MW in Chatham-Kent and the plant is to supply electricity to 350,000 households along with an existing plant that has a wind power generation capacity of 969 MW and a solar power generation capacity of 300 MW.
The electricity Samsung C&T generates in Ontario is scheduled to be supplied to the Ontario Power Authority for 20 years to come. The profits are shared with its project partners. Samsung C&T is to have 50% of the profits derived from the wind power generation and its profits from the solar power generation vary from site to site.
Samsung C&T proposed the project to the province back in 2008, when the Ontario government was eager to create jobs and find new energy sources after the shutdown of old power plants. After a positive answer from the local government, Samsung C&T led all the processes ranging from land procurement and permission acquisition to project partner selection, financing and marketing. In addition, Samsung C&T obtained power supply networks for the project by helping the province attract manufacturing facilities of power generation equipment manufacturers such as Siemens and CS Wind.
The Ontario Project is expected to help Samsung C&T expand its new and renewable energy development business in North America. Samsung C&T recently signed another similar contract in Canada and completed the construction of a solar power plant equipped with energy storage systems in November in Summerside, Prince Edward Island.
Samsung C&T is aiming to sign a similar contract in the United States, too. Samsung C&T America established special purpose company (SPC) Samsung Solar Energy in April this year and the SPC immediately set up Samsung Solar Energy 1 as its fully-owned subsidiary. This is to launch a solar power project in California and the company is currently seeking land with its local partners.