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Niagara Joins "Mega-Region" Wind Partnership

St. Catharines Standard

May 20, 2010

Niagara has teamed up with two cross-border neighbours to try to catch the wind.

The Niagara Economic Development Corp. officially joined a partnership with Greater Rochester Enterprise and Buffalo Niagara Enterprise on Thursday in the hopes of cashing in on the growing wind development and manufacturing industry.

The co-operative effort is meant to grab the attention of big-time players in the wind industry that might otherwise blow off a sales pitch from a small region, said Buffalo Niagara Enterprise spokesman Paul Pfeiffer.

"The reality is we sometimes find ourselves competing against much larger regions," said Pfeiffer. "It just makes sense, in an increasingly more competitive global marketplace, to market ourselves as part of a larger, almost a mega-region."

Pfeiffer said the three agencies recognized the potential for jointly marketing "compelling regional assets" like a diverse transportation network, binational location and strong Great Lakes wind pattern about three months ago.

The result is a new binational partnership dubbed CanAm Wind Energy.

The joint marketing endeavour will debut at the 2010 Wind Power Conference and Exhibition in Dallas next week, with the help of a $5,000 grant from U.S. utility National Grid.

Pffeifer said each economic agency will now be promoting the entire binational region to prospective developers and manufacturers, pointing to suppliers, building locations and labour markets on both sides of the border.

He argued new wind-related business can benefit all three regions.

""If, for example, we can attract an offshore wind development on our side of the border, that makes Niagara a very attractive location for prospective manufacturers of any of those 8,000 wind turbine components," he said.