Friday, April 11, 2008

Naikun to seek out local workers for windfarm development






The proposed NaiKun wind farm development off the coast of Haida Gwaii, will generate some 200 jobs in the construction phase and between 50 to 60 maintenance jobs in the operational phase.
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That was the scope of a presentation to Skeena Queen Charlotte Regional District in late march, the billion dollar development is planned to provide somewhere between 64 and 100 turbines off the east coast of Haida Gwaii, requiring a fairly sizeable maintenance crew to keep them running once they've been installed and are operational.
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With that in mind, NaiKun says that they would like to hire as many local residents as possible to staff those jobs, providing them with the training required to keep the massive project operating off the coast of Haid Gwaii.
It's expected that the construction phase will be underway by May of 2009
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Local residents will have another opportunity to learn more about the project in mid April when Matt Burns, the vice president of operations for the NaiKun Wind Energy Group appears as a guest speaker at the Prince Rupert Chamber of Commerce luncheon on April 16.

Thursday's Daily News featured a front page story with details of the project and the potential impact for local job seekers.


WIND FARM READY TO BREATHE LIFE INTO EMPLOYMENT SCENE
Company behind the NaiKun wind farm wants to recruit, train local workers
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Pages one and two
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The proponents of an offshore wind farm in Hecate Strait have begun talks with the British Columbia Institute of Technology and Northwest Community College about training local people to maintain the facilities.

Representatives from the NaiKun Wind Group were in town in late March and spoke about their plans to directors at the Skeena Queen Charlotte Regional District.

"We don't want to focus on talking up the 200-plus construction jobs," said Hamish Marshall, director of corporate planning for the NaiKun Wind Energy Group.

"We want to focus on the maintenance jobs, some of which will be highly specialized."

Marshall said the company has signed an agreement with BCIT and is working with Northwest Community College to ensure that they can hire as many local workers as possible for the 30 to 50 maintenance jobs.

"The advantage of the fact that these things are not going to be installed tomorrow is that we can take some time to do some training courses," he said.

NaiKun is proposing to spend more than a billion dollars on installing between 64 and 100 turbines off the east coast of Haida Gwaii. The project, the first of its kind in Canada, would be built eight to 20 kilometres offshore and take up about 65 square kilometers. NaiKun hopes to have the project operational by 2012 and will be putting forward a bid to B.C. Hydro during its next call for green power projects. The turbines will be connected to the mainland via underwater cables that will be buried beneath the ocean floor and that will then link into the transmission grid near Prince Rupert.

As part of the project, the company wants to build an electrical transmission link to the Queen Charlotte Islands, known as HaidaLink. Electrical generators that operate on diesel currently power towns on Haida Gwaii.

Marshall explained that NaiKun is currently evaluating which turbine manufacturer they will use for their project. In the first four years of operations, when the turbines are under warrantee, it is likely that the turbine manufacturer will send up specialists to service the equipment.
This in turn offers an opportunity for NaiKun's local maintenance team to learn and train with the turbine manufacturer.

"We will have people looking over the shoulder and following them every step of the way, so when the warrantee period is over, we can use local people to do that maintenance full-time," said Marshall.

For anyone who is interested in more details about the project, Matt Burns, the vice president of operations for the NaiKun Wind Energy Group, will be speaking about the initiative at an upcoming Prince Rupert and District Chamber of Commerce lunch on April 16.

The event takes place at noon at the Crest Hotel.

In addition to his role as a vice president of the NaiKun Wind Group, Burns is president of NaiKun Wind Operating Company and is responsible for NaiKun's Environmental Assessment process, community relations' efforts and preparation for the operation of the facility.

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