Its been just over a year now since construction began at the massive 38,000-acre Golden South Wind Project five kilometres south of Assiniboia.

Project Manager Andrea Garcia with Potentia Renewables, the contractor building the farm, provided a progress update.

"At this point, we've effectively completed all the civil work: roads, foundations, and our collection system."

With the groundwork laid, now the focus is on erecting the 50 wind turbines, all of which have a rotor diameter of 155 metres.

"We have about twelve turbines fully erected and until SaskPower builds out their side of our interconnection, the turbines won't be operation. However, we're working closely with SaskPower to get the project connected later this year."

While some power could begin flowing by the end of December, the entire project won't be completed until sometime early next year.

"We're continuing to work to get our schedule back on track after some disruptions and delays due to the pandemic," explains Garcia. "The original deadline was for us to be all done by December, but at this point, we're expecting to be fully complete by February or March 2021."

Garcia says that the response of the community has been positive overall, though there were some concerns early on in the pandemic at the number of outside workers entering the community. 

"Obviously with a project of this size level of activity, there's always going to be an impact on the daily lives of the people in the area. Whether it's traffic delays from trucks delivering large components, or dust from increased traffic on unpaved roads...But as we've gained our stride and worked through COVID-19, we feel that the community has been incredibly supportive and happy to work with us."

The wind farm is set to be the largest of its kind in Saskatchewan and is expected to produce enough electricity to power 90,000 homes. Potentia Renewables has a 25-year contract to sell electricity to SaskPower but the facility has a lifetime of 25 to 30 years and Garcia says they hope to keep working with the crown once the initial contract is up.