Boralex Inc. (BLX-T) is moving forward with its ambitious strategy of becoming one of the leading North American players in the battery energy storage sector.

This month, the Montreal-based company and its Indigenous partner Walpole Island First Nation announced closing on $172 million in financing for the Tilbury Battery Storage project.

The Tilbury four-hour duration battery energy storage system (BESS), located in Lakeshore, Ont., will deliver 80 megawatts of energy storage with the capacity to power approximately 80,000 homes. Expected to become operational in late 2025, the project is key to Ontario's commitment to renewable power sources and the province's ability to meet growing energy demand.

One of the largest BESS facilities Boralex has yet embarked upon, the Tilbury project also reflects the company's strategic vision of partnering with First Nations communities across Canada on similar ventures.

"We are pleased to reach this major milestone for the Tilbury Battery Storage project and our community," Leela Thomas, Chief of Walpole Island First Nation, said in a release. 

BESS facilities are essential to the continued steady growth of wind and solar power projects in Canada. They allow provincial utilities to balance load demand and compensate for the inherent intermittent nature of these renewable energy sources.

Boralex building a billion-dollar trifecta of Ontario BESS facilities

The Tilbury project is the immediate successor to Boralex's much larger 300-megawatt Hagersville Battery Energy Storage Park, located in Haldimand County, Ont., announced in December, as well as its 125-megawatt Oxford project unveiled in June, 2024.

The Hagersville BESS project is a massive $538-million facility that Boralex will be building in partnership with the Six Nations of the Grand River Development Corporation. Once completed, it will be the largest such facility in Canada.

Boralex considers both Tilbury and Hagersville as prototypes for similar large scale BESS plants. This is in keeping with the company's success in carving out a large slice of the energy storage market to meet increasing demand for major battery storage systems in an evolving renewable energy landscape.

"We see increasing need to build BESS facilities - whether in Ontario or across North America. The energy sector is rapidly developing and adjusting to changes in consumer demand and this has resulted in rising demand for battery energy storage facilities," Darren Suarez, Boralex vice-president of public affairs and communications in North America, said in an interview with Sustainable Biz Canada.

"These are the largest BESS facilities that Boralex has ever built . . . Taken together with Oxford, these three projects mean that Boralex has more battery energy storage projects underway than any developer has under contract at this point in time."

Boralex also nearing completion on Apuiat wind farm in Quebec

Parallel to its strategy of BESS facility construction, Boralex is also nearing completion of its $827-million, 200-megawatt Apuiat wind farm on Quebec's North Shore in association with its Innu community partners.

The Apuiat project, launched in 2023, is the forerunner to two other Boralex wind power farms in Quebec, the Arthabaska Wind Power Project, and the Monnoir Wind Power Project, totalling 365 megawatts.

"Our Apuiat project was one of the first such wind power projects to win approval in Quebec since 2017. But now we're seeing energy demand grow again in the province as we are seeing almost everywhere," Suarez said.

"That is another project where we are working alongside First Nation partners which is our preferred option."

Bad winter weather, hunting season result in temporary delays 

The Apuiat wind farm was originally slated to commence operations at the end of 2024 but ran into delays owing to snowy winter weather conditions and hunting season in the northern Quebec region where Indigenous groups regularly look for game.

"We've experienced a a learning curve in terms of what had to happen on the ground. And in the case of this project, being the first to move forward with a wind farm in this region involves unexpected surprises," Suarez explained.

"Because the Apuiat site is stretched along multiple areas, we had to build 75 kilometres of road for the project to get things in motion. Now we're just getting back to the site and digging out as we speak today. The weather is really determinant of how fast we can proceed."

Another unexpected delay came with hunting season in the region which Boralex "hadn't accounted for in our initial calculation" of the construction process. Work on the wind farm had to be stopped at various times owing to safety concerns.

"This is an area that is home to many hunting lodges and where the Indigenous people have an active hunting community on that territory and we had concerns over having hunters out there at the same time as our construction crews," Suarez said.

"But now we expect to be making significant progress and ensure the completion of the project in a timely manner by the first or second quarter of this year."