[TRENTON, NS] – DSTN Trenton is hoping the recent approval of two major wind farm projects in the province will blow some work its way.
Scott Covey, communications manager for DSTN, says the local plant had spoken with two successful companies before their proposals were accepted by the Department of Energy and it hopes to be in contact with them again in the near future in light of last week's announcement.
"There was no formal discussion before the announcement was made, but we will be in touch with all of the companies now that the bids have been awarded," he says, adding he feels optimistic about the future of the plant. "I think everyone in Nova Scotia would love to see our facility up and going."
The Department of Energy named South Canoe and Sable wind farms as the winners of the call for bids. The Sable wind project is a joint venture of the Municipality of Guysborough and will include a 13.8-megawatt wind farm on municipality-owned land in the Canso/Hazel Hill area.
The 100 megawatt South Canoe project, located at the Municipality of Chester, will be undertaken between NSP, Minas Basin Pulp and Paper and Oxford Frozen Foods. It is broken into two projects that include one of 78-megawatts with Oxford Frozen Foods as the lead and one of 24 megawatts in Minas Basin.
Covey says there are currently between 65 and 70 people working at the Trenton plant and it's currently getting its blade manufacturing division up and running. DSTN had hoped to manufacture blades earlier in the year, but it had a problem with the mould that came from Europe. Instead of building the blades on site, the company did some finishing work on them.
He says the technical glitches seem to be worked out of the blade operations and he expects the plant will be able to manufacture such a product within the near future.
Covey adds that the plant has undergone some major renovations and upgrades in the past six months and is considering taking on some steel fabrication work. He says this type of work could go on in a section of the plant that wouldn't interfere with blade or tower construction and would provide an opportunity for people get back to work.
