{"id":98624,"date":"2025-10-29T08:48:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T12:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=98624"},"modified":"2025-10-29T08:48:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T12:48:00","slug":"town-looking-to-proposed-energy-projects-to-power-microgrid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/29\/town-looking-to-proposed-energy-projects-to-power-microgrid\/","title":{"rendered":"Town looking to proposed energy projects to power microgrid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Matt Prokopchuk, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, TBnewswatch.com FORT FRANCES \u2014 Fort Frances\u2019s mayor says he\u2019s excited about a trio of proposed energy projects in the Northwestern Ontario community and what they could mean for emergency backup power in the area. Andrew Hallikas says three initiatives are in various stages of development: a solar farm and a battery storage facility both proposed by FirstLight (which also owns the existing Fort Frances Generating Station hydro dam) and a biofuel refinery by a partnership between Highbury Renewables and Wanagekong-Biiwega\u2019iganan Clean Energy Corporation \u2014 a consortium of 10 area First Nations. The latter project is expected to create over 80 jobs, according to press materials released by the partnership in August. Hallikas told Newswatch it would also \u201cposition Northwestern Ontario, Fort Frances in&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription &#8211; Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2025%2F10%2F29%2Ftown-looking-to-proposed-energy-projects-to-power-microgrid%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Matt Prokopchuk, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, TBnewswatch.com FORT FRANCES \u2014 Fort Frances\u2019s mayor says he\u2019s excited about a trio of proposed energy projects in the Northwestern Ontario community and what they could mean for emergency backup power in the area. Andrew Hallikas says three initiatives are in various stages of development: a solar farm and a battery storage facility both proposed by FirstLight (which also owns the existing Fort Frances Generating Station hydro dam) and a biofuel refinery by a partnership between Highbury Renewables and Wanagekong-Biiwega\u2019iganan Clean Energy Corporation \u2014 a consortium of 10 area First Nations. The latter project is expected to create over 80 jobs, according to press materials released by the partnership in August. Hallikas told Newswatch it would also \u201cposition Northwestern Ontario, Fort Frances in... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\"><div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\"><div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription - Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div><div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2025%2F10%2F29%2Ftown-looking-to-proposed-energy-projects-to-power-microgrid%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Town looking to proposed energy projects to power microgrid - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/29\/town-looking-to-proposed-energy-projects-to-power-microgrid\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Town looking to proposed energy projects to power microgrid - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Matt Prokopchuk, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, TBnewswatch.com FORT FRANCES \u2014 Fort Frances\u2019s mayor says he\u2019s excited about a trio of proposed energy projects in the Northwestern Ontario community and what they could mean for emergency backup power in the area. Andrew Hallikas says three initiatives are in various stages of development: a solar farm and a battery storage facility both proposed by FirstLight (which also owns the existing Fort Frances Generating Station hydro dam) and a biofuel refinery by a partnership between Highbury Renewables and Wanagekong-Biiwega\u2019iganan Clean Energy Corporation \u2014 a consortium of 10 area First Nations. The latter project is expected to create over 80 jobs, according to press materials released by the partnership in August. 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