More clean electricity will soon flow through Saskatchewan’s energy grid as the new Bekevar wind power plant starts up.

The facility, located north of Moose Mountain Provincial Park, is now online. It is expected to produce up to 200 megawatts of emissions-free electricity, roughly the amount needed to power 100,000 homes. SaskPower will purchase the facility’s output under a 25-year agreement.

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Rupen Pandya, President and CEO of SaskPowersaid the project is part of the Crown corporation’s long-term plan to add up to 3,000 megawatts of wind and solar power to the provincial grid by 2035.

The facility is expected to produce enough electricity to power around 100,000 homes. (Innagreen/Submitted)

“We are committed to achieving an electricity system with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, and we are on track to achieve this by 2050 or sooner,” Pandya said in a statement.

“Bekevar, the largest ever Indigenous-owned renewable energy facility in Saskatchewan, marks another important step toward this ambitious goal.

SaskPower said 1,000 megawatts of wind and solar generation are currently in the development phase, and the company added a requirement that proposals must come from companies with at least 10 per cent Indigenous ownership.

The Bekevar facility is owned and operated by Bekevar Wind LP, a partnership between Innagreen Investments and Nehiyawewini Energy Development Limited Partnership, which is sole property of the Cowesses First Nation of Saskatchewan.

Cowesses Chief Erica Beaudin said the First Nation is excited to see the project completed.

Indigenous peoples, we believe it is our duty to not only invest in clean energy, but to put ourselves at the forefront as a leader in clean energy,” the chief said in a statement.

“Yotin (“wind” in Cree) plays an important role in our cultural ways of being and we firmly believe that this powerful spirit has many more teachings and blessings to bestow on us all.