New wind-power facility officially opens

What's described as the largest wind power plant in Canada was officially opened Wednesday in southwest Saskatchewan.

A Mighty Wind Farm

The Centennial Wind Power Facility Image Gallery: Saskatchewan's new wind power facility is officially open.

The 150-megawatt Centennial wind power facility, located 25 kilometres southeast of Swift Current, will provide enough electricity for 64,000 homes.

The federal government is providing $54 million over 10 years to the project, which was built by SaskPower's international division.

Much of that money is being spent inside the province. Hitachi Canadian Industries Ltd. in Saskatoon manufactured the 83 steel towers for the turbines.

According to the SaskPower, it's the largest operating wind power facility in Canada.

Saskatchewan now has 172 megawatts of wind generation capacity totalling approximately five per cent of the province's total electrical generation capacity.

That's the highest percentage in Canada, according to SaskPower.