Walpole Island partners on $180M battery storage facility near Tilbury

Walpole Island First Nation is teaming with renewable energy giant Boralex to build a new battery storage facility in Lakeshore expected to create up to 150 local construction jobs.

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The Tilbury Battery Storage project, which will store 80 megawatts of power, enough to power 80,000 homes, is estimated to be completed late next year at a cost of $180 million to $200 million.

The project was announced by company, First Nation and provincial government representatives at a Friday news conference just outside Tilbury in Lakeshore.

Construction will create as many as 150 jobs, but when the facility is operational, it will only require three to four people to operate, a Boralex official said.

“Battery storage is a critical component to support the responsible expansion of Ontario’s clean and reliable grid that will provide affordable energy to Ontario families and businesses,” said Stephen Lecce, minister of energy and electrification.

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The Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) has indicated Ontario will need at least 60 per cent more energy in the next 25 years. To support that demand, battery storage facilities will enable generated clean power to be stored and deployed when needed, advancing Ontario’s clean energy advantage.

Lecce congratulated Boralex and the Walpole Island community “in reaching this milestone achievement which, once connected to the grid, will attract new investments and reduce energy costs for Ontario’s ratepayers.”

Leela Thomas, the First Nation’s newly elected chief, said, “It’s nice that we’re able to partner on an initiative like this.”

She added it great to see a company like Boralex commit to work with Walpole Island.

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With hundreds of wind turbines in Chatham-Kent, Thomas said Walpole is “always open to more discussions on more projects down the road.”

There will be more battery storage projects in the future, Lecce said. The province just launched the largest competitive procurement in Canadian history for 5,000 megawatts of power, which will include commitments for additional storage capability.

But future commitments for clean energy projects will be with willing host communities, willing community partners and with the participation and support of local Indigenous partnerships.

Noting the former Liberal government imposed wind turbine projects on communities, willing or not, Lecce vowed: “We will never impose a project without a municipal support resolution.”

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Willing partnerships create win-win outcomes that provide local energy capacity when needed, but also support a cleaner and more affordable power grid for Ontario families and farmers, he said.

“It’s cheaper to save energy than it is to generate it,” Lecce said.

The former Liberal government that procured contracts at 10 times above the market rate, “which we’re still paying for today, we’re procuring on price,” Lecce said.

MPP Trevor Jones (PC-Chatham-Kent-Leamington) said, “Our government is working hard to ensure communities have reliable, affordable, clean power to support families and our critical farming, food processing and manufacturing sectors here.”

This important investment by Boralex and Walpole Island “will improve reliability and strengthen our supply chains, particularly during peak demand periods like our harvest season,” he added.

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Boralex is “ecstatic” to have reached this milestone for the Tilbury Battery Storage project, said Adam Rosso, senior vice-president of development in North America.

It’s a “testament to our team’s skill, dedication, and hard work,” he added.

With equity partner Walpole Island, Boralex is “proud to contribute to Ontario’s clean energy future by providing reliable and stable capacity,” Rosso said.

“This project, alongside our other battery storage initiatives, solidifies Boralex’s leadership in utility-scale energy storage,” he added.

Boralex has a 300-megawatt battery storage project underway in Hagersville, near Hamilton, expected to be operational next year.

The company announced in May it is building a 125-megawatt facility in South-West Oxford projected to be up and running by 2027 or 2028. It’s a 50 per cent partnership with Six Nations of the Grand River Development Corp.

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The Quebec-based company, which has been operating in Ontario for nearly 15 years, also has wind farms in the Niagara and Chatham-Kent regions.

Rosso thanked Lecce and the government for their “commitment to Ontario’s growing energy needs and look forward to further collaborations.”

With files from Brian Williams, Local Journalism Initiative

[email protected]

BY THE NUMBERS

• Tilbury Battery Storage will store 80 megawatts of power.
• Boralex is building 380 MW of energy storage facilities in Ontario
• The IESO indicated 60 per cent more power is needed by 2050.
• In spring 2024, Ontario secured nearly 3,000 MW of battery storage under the largest battery procurement framework in the nation’s history

Source: Ontario Ministry of Energy and Electrification

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