Case Study: A Lifecycle Approach to Energy Infrastructure
Engaging landowners and ensuring land remediation, benefitting people and nature
Originally published in Enbridge's 2022 Sustainability Report
When the ground thaws above the 50th parallel in Saskatchewan in the spring of 2023, an Enbridge crew will be seeding a swath of farmland. At a site where our wind turbines produced clean energy for two decades, agricultural production is about to resume.
The turbines at this Saskatchewan wind farm were Enbridge’s first renewable energy investment, back in 2002—the beginning of an $8 billion program of renewable energy development to date. We decided to decommission the asset, the SunBridge Wind Farm, in 2022 because the turbines had reached the end of their useful life, and challenges with surrounding infrastructure made it inefficient to repower and re-equip the asset.
Although renewable energy production at the site was ending, our commitment to environmental stewardship and landowner engagement remains as strong as ever. We carried out extensive local engagement to understand landowner priorities for the site. We recycled or reused almost every part of the physical equipment, and responsibly dismantled every element of the energy asset, including not just the turbines but substation and access road. Before restoring soil to the land, we passed a large industrial magnet over the entire area to ensure that no scrap metal would be left behind, thus eliminating the risk of injury or damage to farm equipment.
When the ground is ready in the spring, we’ll be there—planting seeds and delivering on the commitment we made 20 years ago to fulfill our responsibilities to the land and the surrounding communities.
