Yves Gagnon said more communities should follow the example of Summerside in owning their own wind resources. (CBC)

P.E.I. is making a mistake in allowing private companies to take control of the province's wind energy resources, says the K.C. Irving chair in sustainable development at Universite de Moncton.

Yves Gagnon told a gathering of municipal leaders in the eastern P.E.I. community of Montague on Monday that P.E.I. is wise to harness its wind resource, which he described as among the best in the world, but he was critical of the degree to which the development was being done by the private sector.

"The important money is through the ownership of the wind farm," said Gagnon.

"There's not a lot in the building of wind farms. It's a short-term activity, short-term economic impact within a few months in the jurisdiction. While [with] the ownership, you generate profits over a 25-year period."

Energy Minister Richard Brown plans to put out a tender in a few weeks that will expand that private sector development. The province is looking for another 40 to 50 megawatts of renewable energy, either from wind or bio-fuels, or a combination of the two.

Brown said there are local benefits, while acknowledging it's not from the energy production directly.

"We can rent our land and we can get a return on our investment through this corporation, so its sort of a community-based, led project, but it's still not owned [locally]," he said.

Gagnon said local ownership brings direct benefits to the public purse as well as reducing public concern about noise and potential health risks.

"If there's more local ownership and local involvement of communities or P.E.I. Crown corporations, in the case of the P.E.I. Energy Corporation, you should see a reduction in the opposition," he said.

Gagnon said more communities should follow the example of Summerside, which is investing $30 million in a wind farm.

With its excellent wind resource, said Gagnon, wind power could become as important to P.E.I. as hydroelectricity is to Quebec.