Manitoba’s green economy received a major boost in November 2008, with Manitoba Hydro board’s acceptance of a proposal from St. Joseph Wind Farm Inc. (owned by Babcock & Brown Canada ULC) to develop a 300-megawatt wind farm — the largest in Canada — at St. Joseph in southern Manitoba.

The St. Joseph proposal was the best of 84 received in response to Manitoba Hydro’s 2007 request for proposals and brings the province one step closer to achieving its goal of developing 1,000 megawatts of wind power over the next decade.

The project is worth over $800 million and will generate electricity from 130 turbines. Environmental benefits include displacing 800,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually, the equivalent of taking 145,000 cars off the road. Construction is expected to start in 2009 and power deliveries could begin as early as 2011.