In 2004, an individual, Dana Morin from Windsor, Nova Scotia had a dream of creating community-based, equity-tax-credit-eligible wind energy companies across Nova Scotia. The vision was that his company, 4G, would handle the accounting and paperwork for each of the regional “Windfields”.
David Swan of New Annan, Colchester County, encountered Dana and was interested in his vision. David, a mechanical engineer, shared the dream of community-owned renewable energy generation. As a local to the county, David enticed supporters of the idea to become the first shareholders and Board of Directors of the new Cumberland Windfield, which soon became Colchester-Cumberland Windfield (CCWF).
CCWF continued building momentum. The Nova Scotia Community Economic-Development Investment Funds (CEDIF) program was created, and in 2007 CCWF received CEDIF status.
The initial years of CCWF were spent searching for potential wind turbine sites. Selection criteria included wind resource, proximity to power lines and roads, distance from residences, and finding a supportive land owner. After considering a handful of sites from Wentworth to Malagash, Spiddle Hill was selected. In late 2007, CCWF erected a meteorological tower to monitor the sites resource. After several years of data collection, the resource was confirmed, and the rest is history (in progress!).