ESTEVAN – While some work has already taken place at the site of the new Turning Sun Solar facility southwest of Estevan, construction is expected to ramp up later this year.
A groundbreaking ceremony was held June 5 at the project site for Turning Sun, which is a partnership between Greenwood Sustainable Infrastructure (GSI) and Ocean Man Nakoda Nation (OMNN) to build, own and operate the plant through an independent power producer agreement with SaskPower.
Michael Hinton, the project director with Barton Malow Canada, said approximately 50 workers are currently at the site, and the number will grow in the middle of the summer.
"The fencing is underway. We’ve started on some of our piling activities, so the screw piles … some of that has started to be put into the ground. We’re about a … quarter of the way of receiving those piles on site," said Hinton.
The racking material started to arrive in recent days, he said. Panels are expected to be added in early fall. The panels are manufactured in Vietnam and sourced in Canada, said GSI CEO Mazen Turk.
Construction is expected to continue into the middle of next year, he said, and then the facility will be connected into a SaskPower substation.
The company is working with some local contractors, Hinton said. Foundational work is with a company out of Alberta that has hired people from the Estevan area and member of the OMNN. A Canadian vendor supplied the steel, but Hinton said the steel is international; Hinton said he believes it is from China.
During the groundbreaking ceremony, Winnipeg-South Liberal MP Terry Duguid announced a $15 million federal commitment to the project, while a number of speakers addressed the crowd.
