As Canada shifts to a sharper focus on clean and renewable energy, the province of Saskatchewan is doing the same. Gaia Power's Western Lily wind facility recently opened near Grenfell for commercial operational purposes, making it the eighth one in Saskatchewan.

When the provinicial government issued it's Prairie Resilience Plan, they wanted to emphasize clean energy and wind power certainly fits that bill. 

Samir Sharma is the President of Gaia Power and said it's a big day for his company.

"It's a culmination of a lot of hard work. It's certainly exciting" he said. "The construction started in June of last year, so the construction time was about seven or eight months. Before that, was the permitting phase which takes longer. It involves a lot of community consultation and environmental permitting."

The wind farm will be a 20-Megawatt facility, which will make it the fourth largest of its kind in the province. It equals out to the equivalence of powering 8,000 homes annually. 

Sharma's company specializes in contributing clean energy to businesses in Canada. He believes wind power can be a big part of the future. 

"It's certainly a good source of energy. It has no pollution or climate change impact and it actually complements the existing sources of power in the province," Sharma noted. "I think moving forward it will be very important in terms of addressing climate change goals and addressing renewable energy mixed with overall energy sources in Saskatchewan." 

Currently, wind energy accounts for just over three percent of the total electricity in the province. That 3.4 percent is made up of 241 Megawatts across eight farms around the province. The Western Lily facility will house eight turbines. 

"Imagine if you have sources like these that the consumers can rely on for green energy and if you have a mix of these it achieves a good balance in terms of power generation and power consumption," Sharma said.

There are two more wind farms in the development phase at the moment, with the one by Algonquin Power set to be the largest in the province and hopefully be ready in 2021. 

Gaia Power is also looking at more plants across the country, but has not yet been approved for another facility in Saskatchewan.