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National Wind Watch: Wind Energy News- Rural Mexican communities protest wind farms
- La energía eólica decepciona a los indígenas mexicanos
- Critics blast Maine’s ‘expedited’ wind permitting process
- Wind farm oil spill causes uproar
- Wind plants built too close to residential areas
- Supes add conditions to Red Horse 2 wind project
- Wind farm developments out of control and unjustified says wild land charity
- Windfarm project divides villagers in Sagada
- Industrial Wind Action: News Watch
- Wind turbine found damaged in Iroquois County
- Xcel sues New Era wind project
- Court decision could unplug green energy mandate in Michigan
- Try living by them: challenge to turbine supporters
- Comments on Jacobson et. al. proposal for a wind, water, and solar energy future for New York State
- Group opposes $400 million Maine wind project
- Wind farm developments out of control and unjustified says wild land charity
- County Supervisors sued for wind turbine-friendly approach
Tundra Swan Reports
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- Wind Wise Radio
- Stay tuned for what’s coming up on WWR.What we are working on: WWR will return on the 9th of January with Pat Swords and Christine Metcalfe and Aarhus Convention; Also Clive Hambler Conservation lecturer at Oxford. We sift through all of the suggestions and try to pick the most relevant, timely stories for each week. Please send them along!
- Stay tuned for what’s coming up on WWR.
Ontario Wind Turbine Map
Wellandport mother suggests registry to buy, trade properties
Niagara This Week
A Wellandport mother is challenging supporters of wind energy to put their money where their mouths are. Shellie Correia has issued a challenge to supporters of wind energy: buy our homes.
“What I am suggesting, is a registry, for ecology-minded people like yourself, to sign up to buy, or trade, property and homes from the people in communities with wind turbines, that are being made miserable, through no fault of their own,” said Correia. “No one is asking you to do anything that you haven’t already said was reasonable to do in exchange for green energy. Proponents of green energy say all the time that they would love to live near the turbines, and they don’t believe that they would suffer any health effects from them.”
Correia, who moved to Wellandport to escape the city life, will have one industrial wind turbine erected at the minimum provincial setback of 550 metres from her home. There will be four others within a four-kilometre radius. Read article
Posted in Ethics, Health, Take Action
11 Comments
SBP joins anti-turbine chorus
Owen Sound Times
South Bruce Peninsula has declared the town it is not a willing host to industrial wind turbines. But Mayor John Close says that the resolution may not carry much weight because the Bruce County official plan states the county is in favour of alternative energy sources. At a meeting Tuesday, South Bruce Peninsula council passed a motion similar to ones dozens of other municipalities across the province passed in declaring they are not a willing host to industrial wind turbines.
Close said he wanted to make it clear that both the county and the town official plans trump any resolution council makes. “Right now we are facing the problem of do you put the cart in front of the horse,” said Close. “You should be amending the official plan so that we can clear this question up once and for all.” Close said the county official plan is up for review this year or next and he expects the clause relating to alternative energy sources will be reviewed.
“Personally, I don’t know where we would stand if challenged on this because our official plan is very clear,” Close said. “If a member of the province were to ask me what our official plan states, I would unfortunately have to say we are in support of alternative energy sources. It sort of really has put us into a problem.” The move comes after Premier Kathleen Wynne said in a speech this spring that wind energy projects would not be imposed on municipalities that are not willing hosts to such developments. Read article
Bluewater Rep to Attend Wind Summit
Bayshore Broadcasting
Bluewater Council will send representative George Irvin to the Multi-Municipal Working Group Wind Summit in Ripley on Friday, June 21st. Irvin will observe and report, but he hopes his peers will take things one step further. The Stanley West representative thinks Bluewater should consider joining up with the group.
The municipal wind turbine group holds regular meetings in Chesley where topics relating to the wind industry are discussed. This time the Huron-Kinloss community is hosting the gathering, and the topic specifically is noise. Irvin says Bluewater has dealt with by-laws addressing health, road access and setbacks, but it has nothing on noise. He says the group is raising issues that the public needs to be talking about. Within the County, Huron East is already a member, but sends a citizen delegate on the municipality’s behalf.
Posted in Municipalities of Ontario, Noise
1 Comment
Looking at Turbines’ Effects on Radar
Bayshore Broadcasting
Bluewater) – The catalogue of alleged detrimental effects caused by the operation of wind turbines continues to grow. It’s been proven the big blades can swat eagles from the sky, and it is argued that the vibrations from their whirl affect dairy production.
Then, some claim health hazards resulting from a symptom diagnosed as “shadow flicker”. Now, worries are being expressed that turbines cause interference with radar. Bluewater CAO Steve McAuley says faulty data from weather radar could have its consequences, and the Municipality has alerted Federal Environment Minister Peter Kent.
In a letter shared with Council at a recent meeting, Kent says he will have his Department look into the concerns. The move may also involve yet another department of the Federal government in the debate over the Province’s Green Energy Act.
Posted in Municipalities of Ontario, Safety
1 Comment
South Bruce Penninsula Not a Willing Host
Today, June 18, 2013, the Town of South Bruce Peninsula Council unanimously passed a resolution stating: “….And that in light of comments made by Premier Wynn with regard to municipalities and their willingness to host wind turbine developments;
That the Council for the Corporation of the Town of South Bruce Peninsula does hereby declare that South Bruce Peninsula is not a willing host to industrial wind turbine development;….”
There was some re-directing of importance and minimalizing the effect of the motion strongly stated by Mayor Close, the recent past president of the Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound Federal Liberal Riding Association, using the Town’s and the County’s Official Plans as defence that they would trump a resolution of this type. In the end, Councillors voted unanimously to be on the record that when the Town actually does change the Official Plan, at least planners would know that the municipality is against hosting Industrial Wind Turbines development.
This concludes the declarations by every municipality of Bruce County that at their municipal level, there is no place that can be considered as a willing host to industrial wind turbine development. Even for those municipalities that already have some development, they are no longer willing hosts.
Post-FIT Decision, Turbine OEMs Mull Over Options
North American Wind Power
The Ontario government’s recent decision to end the province’s feed-in tariff (FIT) program for large-scale renewable energy projects – in favor of a competitive-procurement mechanism – has introduced a jolt of uncertainty for provincial wind turbine component suppliers and manufacturers. On May 30, Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli announced the province and the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) will develop a competitive-procurement process for renewable projects exceeding 500 kW while also making 900 MW of new capacity available for the Small FIT and microFIT programs. The change is immediate and effective for all projects going forward.
The government’s decision to end the nearly four-year-old program could not have come at worse time for some manufacturers and suppliers. In fact, some suppliers have invested heavily to retrofit or build new production facilities in the province. For example, Suzlon Group’s REpower Systems expects to open a blade production facility in Welland this fall. And Siemens Canada tells NAW it is ramping up wind blade production at its Tillsonburg-based facility and anticipates the delivery of the first blade later this month.
Pattern Energy – which along with Siemens, is helping Samsung Renewable Energy fulfill a C$7 billion agreement it struck with the provincial government following the Green Energy Act in 2009 – believes the end of the FIT program may hinder Ontario’s wind energy market. Read article
Posted in Wind Industry
13 Comments
