Aeolis’ wind park sites are grouped into two distinctive geographic regions — Northeastern BC and the Coast. 

Northeastern BC

Northeastern BC is a vast area that covers almost 200,000 square kilometers, but is home to only about 50,000 people. The largest cities are Fort St. John (20,000) and Dawson Creek (11,500). The region does not fit the broad physical description of BC as a mountainous, vertical landscape. Lying to the east of the Rocky Mountains, most of it is relatively flat and physiographically similar to the prairies. The exception to this are the foothills of the Rockies, which Garrad Hassan, Al-Pro, Enercon and other wind industry players from around the world now recognize as having world-class wind. BC Hydro and the BC Government are also now fully apprised of this exceptional asset, which was little understood until Aeolis and a few other independent wind developers began prospecting for wind in the region fewer than 10 years ago.

As of 2010 there is only one operating wind park in northeastern BC, the 102 MW Bear Mountain Wind Park, the development of which Aeolis led. Bear Mountain is currently owned and operated by Alta Gas Income Trust. Aeolis has long-term leases to a number of other exceptional wind park sites in the region, including the 1400 MW Thunder Mountain Wind Project and 500 MW Hackney Hills Wind Project, the two properties we are currently focused on developing. Over time, as the Northeast Transmission Line is developed and demand for wind-generated electricity escalates, we anticipate developing many more of our wind park sites in northeastern BC.

The Coast

Aeolis’ coastal wind park sites are clustered around Vancouver Island in the southwest corner of the province. Vancouver Island is dominated by a rugged spine of mountains subject to the prevailing westerly wind. Aeolis has concerns about icing at higher elevations in the region, however, and has thus selected sites that are at sea level close to the water. Further, sites at sea level where the air is denser have an inherent advantage in terms of power generation capacity over sites at higher elevations where the air is thinner. Three of Aeolis’ four coastal wind park sites are in the vicinity of Johnstone and Queen Charlotte Straits to take advantage of the area’s Venturi effect.