South Korea's trading and construction company Samsung C&T Corp., has signed a $3 billion contract to construct wind and solar energy power plants in Canada.
According to the terms of contract with the government of Ontario province Samsung C&T will build 520 megawatt energy farms in the province's Haldimand and Chatham-Kent southern regions and 550 megawatt complexes in Kingston and Bruce, Yonhap news agency reported. Under the contract terms, South Korea's state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. will also design the facilities' electrical wiring and operate the plants.
Samsung C&T stated that the contract represents the first two steps of Canada's five-stage projects to build 2,000 megawatt wind farms and 500 megawatt solar power plants in the province and operate them for the next two decades. When complete, the Ontario energy farms are scheduled to supply electricity to 1.6 million households annually, with Samsung C&T beginning work on the first two steps of the project in 2012. Construction is projected to be complete by 2014.
In 2010 Samsung C&T Corp committed to invest $7 billion in Ontario under the province's Green Energy Act, a plan by the Liberal government to redirect the province off its primary source of energy, coal-fired power, towards renewable energy,
Samsung investment in Ontario is in exchange for $110 million in subsidies over the next 25 years that economists believe could generate up to 16,000 new jobs.
By. Joao Peixe, Deputy Editor OilPrice.com
Joao is a writer for Oilprice.com More