WILNO.........Cottage country studies wind power
Madawaska Valley Councillors will go on “a tour” to investigate how wind turbine operations affect communities.
A controversy is flaring in the area over proposals to erect several wind turbine farms. One of the proposals would see six of the massive turbines built in the hills outside Wilno, Ont. and it has spawned a well-organized opposition movement called SOS, or Save Our Skyline.
Mayor John Hildebrandt, who has spoken in support of wind power, said the tour would likely take place in the third week of September.
Barry’s Bay This Week
The Sault Star
27 August 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Sorry, can't support wind turbines
Wind turbines sound great when you first hear about them. Who is against renewable energy? Farmers who struggle to make a living are eying up the $9,000 they are to receive per turbine per year. Ten turbines is a retirement income of $90,000! Who would blame the farmers! And the Bonnechere and Madawaska township councils can see much-needed tax dollars flowing in. But there are problems with the whole scheme. ...Let's make sure that if we choose to install hundreds of 400- foot high turbines in our heritage countryside we do so from informed choice.
August 23, 2008 by Dr. Ben Hoffman in The Daily Observer
There is a real conflict emerging over the proposed wind turbines apparently to be installed from Dacre, all along the Opeongo Line through Wilno, Barry's Bay and to Algonquin Park.
Neighbors are getting set against one another over this; even some families have started to split, brother against brother.
The issue has serious implications for all of Renfrew County.
Wind turbines sound great when you first hear about them. Who is against renewable energy?
Farmers who struggle to make a living are eying up the $9,000 they are to receive per turbine per year.
Ten turbines is a retirement income of $90,000!
Who would blame the farmers! And the Bonnechere and Madawaska township councils can see much-needed tax dollars flowing in. But there are problems with the whole scheme.
Considerable forest will have to be cut to install them, roads built to service them, skylines altered as hundreds pepper the horizon, their red lights flashing at night; and they are noisy too.
I know, because I went to Shelburne Ontario to see them.
So if you are not someone who is going to benefit directly, why support them? Maybe there is a way.
Imagine if only a few were placed strategically along the mountain range.
Out of the way, with little negative environmental and esthetic impact?
Imagine if our provincial and federal members of Parliament went to Queen's Park and insisted that our hydro rates (already higher than in Toronto) be reduced because we are sending alternatively- generated electricity south.
And imagine if the township councils guaranteed every taxpayer a cheque in the mail each year from this new revenue source (like Alberta has done with oil revenues).
These things, however, will likely never take place.
A few turbines make no business sense for the windpower companies.
They will want to install hundreds, as they have in Shelburne.
Our elected politicians will hardly persuade Ontario Hydro to lower our rates.
Township councils will not send us a cheque every year. Except for our few neighbors who will get some money, there seems no net financial, esthetic or green value in having the turbines here at all.
Without turbines what is our economic, social and lifestyle vision for Renfrew County?
Only five per cent of our workforce is now employed in logging and farming. Forty-five per cent of our jobs are in commerce and retail, and tourism.
Reality is that small business, eco-tourism, and potential retirement communities will be strong elements in the future. If we preserve our natural beauty.
Let's make sure that if we choose to install hundreds of 400- foot high turbines in our heritage countryside we do so from informed choice.
My sense is that once we are all informed and determine the net impact, we will choose to say to our would-be wind-farmer neighbor, as I have done with mine, "Sorry old friend, I can't support this project."
The author is the Federal Green Party Candidate, Eganville, ON
Web link: http://www.thedailyobserver.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx...
August 23, 2008 by Dr. Ben Hoffman in The Daily Observer
There is a real conflict emerging over the proposed wind turbines apparently to be installed from Dacre, all along the Opeongo Line through Wilno, Barry's Bay and to Algonquin Park.
Neighbors are getting set against one another over this; even some families have started to split, brother against brother.
The issue has serious implications for all of Renfrew County.
Wind turbines sound great when you first hear about them. Who is against renewable energy?
Farmers who struggle to make a living are eying up the $9,000 they are to receive per turbine per year.
Ten turbines is a retirement income of $90,000!
Who would blame the farmers! And the Bonnechere and Madawaska township councils can see much-needed tax dollars flowing in. But there are problems with the whole scheme.
Considerable forest will have to be cut to install them, roads built to service them, skylines altered as hundreds pepper the horizon, their red lights flashing at night; and they are noisy too.
I know, because I went to Shelburne Ontario to see them.
So if you are not someone who is going to benefit directly, why support them? Maybe there is a way.
Imagine if only a few were placed strategically along the mountain range.
Out of the way, with little negative environmental and esthetic impact?
Imagine if our provincial and federal members of Parliament went to Queen's Park and insisted that our hydro rates (already higher than in Toronto) be reduced because we are sending alternatively- generated electricity south.
And imagine if the township councils guaranteed every taxpayer a cheque in the mail each year from this new revenue source (like Alberta has done with oil revenues).
These things, however, will likely never take place.
A few turbines make no business sense for the windpower companies.
They will want to install hundreds, as they have in Shelburne.
Our elected politicians will hardly persuade Ontario Hydro to lower our rates.
Township councils will not send us a cheque every year. Except for our few neighbors who will get some money, there seems no net financial, esthetic or green value in having the turbines here at all.
Without turbines what is our economic, social and lifestyle vision for Renfrew County?
Only five per cent of our workforce is now employed in logging and farming. Forty-five per cent of our jobs are in commerce and retail, and tourism.
Reality is that small business, eco-tourism, and potential retirement communities will be strong elements in the future. If we preserve our natural beauty.
Let's make sure that if we choose to install hundreds of 400- foot high turbines in our heritage countryside we do so from informed choice.
My sense is that once we are all informed and determine the net impact, we will choose to say to our would-be wind-farmer neighbor, as I have done with mine, "Sorry old friend, I can't support this project."
The author is the Federal Green Party Candidate, Eganville, ON
Web link: http://www.thedailyobserver.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx...
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Saturday, August 2, 2008
SOS Group Speaks up
The high cost of energy and the push for green power has prompted a gold rush of sorts, as companies eye Renfrew County as a host for a series of ambitious wind power projects.
While still far from certain, several companies have made serious inroads into making large scale wind generation here a reality, with others making inquiries.
Test sites and leasing agreements with landowners are being lined up, some of which could be ready to proceed as early as the next year or two.
So far four companies have been working on projects within the Madawaska and Bonnechere Valley regions.
SkyPower Corp. is proposing four individual projects within Renfrew and South Algonquin Counties, consisting of six turbine sites each for Wilno, Foymount, Killaloe and Madawaska.
Renewable Energy Systems Canada or RES is looking at sites in the Denbigh and Whitney/Madawaska areas.
Action In Motion Power Gen, or AIM for short, has property under option with an eye to erect wind turbines along the Opeongo Line.
Brookfield Renewable Power, a Gatineau, Quebec company that owns generation facilities around the western hemisphere, has been busy negotiating with local landowners to secure leasing rights to use their properties as wind turbine sites, should the project proceed. The Canadian company is considering setting up a wind generation site south of Dacre, within an area bordered by Flat Road to the south and Highway 41 to the east.
This is not a small undertaking.
The wind turbines themselves are massive structures. Each turbine weighs 253 tonnes, with its engine nacelle the size of a school bus. Sitting atop towers some 270 feet tall -equivalent to the height of Parliament Hill’s Peace Tower in Ottawa -the turbines possess three blades, each the length of a Boeing 737 jetliner, with a sweep the size of three NHL regulation sized hockey rinks. The tower’s concrete base runs up to 10 metres deep.
A wind turbine needs a site several acres in size, making it necessary for companies building the structures to negotiate with landowners to work out long-term leasing agreements for the land.
This is to protect the investment of the company, which needs to guarantee electricity generation to utilities such as Hydro One.
This explosion in activity has alarmed some residents within the southern municipalities of Renfrew County, who are concerned about the impact windmills and turbines will have on the landscape, the environment and their everyday lives.
One of these proposed SkyPower sites within Madawaska Valley Township is beside the Wilno farm of Lou Eyamie and Pauline Sedgeman, who attended information sessions hosted in May by the wind power company. Not satisfied by the answers being provided, the couple did some research on their own.
This led to the two organizing their own public meeting at the beginning of July at the Killaloe Lions Hall, which sparked the creation of SOS, Save Our Skyline, a grassroots group formed to oppose wind power developments within the county.
Mr. Eyamie, the newly elected president of SOS, said the whole idea behind the meeting was to inform the public of the other side of the story.
“They need to know that (wind turbines) are not efficient, they’ll create havoc with our environment, will have a severe and long-lasting impact on our economy, and will put our property values and health at risk,” he said. “These things are monsters.”
Mr. Eyamie said the towers are unsightly, and require three to five acres of land which must be cleared around them to make room. Service access must also be provided to each tower, meaning roads have to be built.
He said property values around other wind power sites in the country have dropped in their presence, the turbine blades pose a risk to birds and other animals, and the health impacts of the low intensity noise given off by the machines a serious matter worth consideration.
The wind turbines also consume power on days of light to no wind, as the blades must keep turning regardless.
“People are totally unaware of the downside, that there are no benefits at all to these turbines, except for the people who have land leases to host them, and the power companies who own them,”Mr. Eyamie said.
The best way to battle the wind turbines is public education, he said. The members of SOS are certain once the public and local councillors hear more about the towers, they are certain the outcry will stop the different projects in their tracks.
“We’re taking the time to verify every fact we can,”Mr. Eyamie said, so SOS can be certain it is standing on firm ground as it runs its opposition campaign.
The group plans to hold public information meetings starting this fall.
While Mr. Eyamie sees problems on the horizon, Craig Kelley sees the potential for opportunity. But he is being cautiously optimistic.
Madawaska Valley Township’s community development officer said the municipality is working through the process with SkyPower as the company makes the appropriate zoning applications to proceed with their development. Realistically, he doesn’t see any groundwork starting for at least another year, once one factors in the length of the approval process and the short construction season.
This length of time works in their favour, as it allows council members to educate themselves on what permitting wind turbines will mean to Madawaska Valley.
“This is such new territory,” Mr. Kelley said, noting Ontario has made provision for renewable energy within its power grid, but questions do remain.
“Is this going to be the smart way to go when the leases are up in 20 years? We don’t know.”
To try and find answers, Mr. Kelley said select staff and members of council will be embarking on a road trip this fall to see for themselves how such wind turbine developments have impacted other communities, and how their councils have handled the issue.
He said they will be visiting Ontario wind power operations in Kincardine, Goderich and Raleigh to get some idea of what is being proposed.
“You cannot get the sense of scope of this until you see it in person,”Mr. Kelley said.
The council members will also take the time to chat with their counterparts within the host municipalities, as well as local people to try and get a better idea of the process to establish such operations, and the impacts it is having on the area.
“There are people who have learned lessons here with knowledge we could benefit from,” he said.
Mr. Kelley said there will be a number of public meetings which will occur as this process is ongoing, likely starting this fall, where the public will get a chance to air their concerns. He said he hopes all sides on this issue will attend.
“We’re doing the best we can with the tools we’re given,” he said. “We’re not rushing forward, but taking the time to do things right.”
Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke MPP John Yakabuski is wearing several hats when it comes to the wind turbine issue. As representative of the constituency where it is happening, he has been hearing from all sides on the matter. As the Tory energy critic, it is his business to know all about power generation and its pluses and minuses. As a proud Barry’s Bay boy, his roots are located right in the centre of it.
“There is certainly controversy swirling around them,” he said, “in which the two groups have become polarized about wind turbines.”
Of the number of problems people have against the towers, Mr. Yakabuski said he has heard at the top of the list is the visual impact of seeing the turbines across the landscape, with the noise generated by the turbines close behind, followed by other potential environmental affects.
“The visual will never be settled,” he said. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and the two groups never will meet on this.”
Other environmental matters such as bird strikes, the long-term affects of low-intensity noise, and working out the proper setbacks from towers are matters which should be resolved, the MPP said, but exactly how needs to be worked out.
“There have been questions forwarded to us whether the province has a proper environmental assessment process in place to address this sort of development,” he said. “That is a fair question.”
The MPP said those in support of the project see wind as playing a major role in the development of green power, that is, power without emissions.
Mr. Yakabuski said while wind will play a part in Ontario’s energy grid, it will never be a replacement for other sources of energy.
“I neither stand for or against it,” he said. “It is there, and it will play a role, but we can’t solve our energy problems with wind power alone.”
The problem with wind is it is too intermittent to be a reliable power source, and the wind turbines themselves need power to keep turning during calm days.
“The wind is what it is,” he said, “and we don’t control it.”
Mr. Yakabuski said it is up to the municipalities to decide whether or not to have this sort of development inside their borders. The province placed that responsibility in the hands of local councils.
The MPP’s advice to municipalities is to use prudence before agreeing to permit their development.
“At the end of the day, it will be up to the municipal councils whether they allow wind turbines within their municipalities,” he said.
“They have the right to say yes or no to these.”
By Stephen Uhler
Staff Writer
2 August 2008
CBC "Ontario Today" generates comments....
Comment on SkyPower's interests here in Wilno after the CGC "Ontario Today" interview by Bill Brown with Prince Edwards County Mayor and the opponents of the Industrialzation of "The County":
"Skypower and other wind companies are here too, in the Madawaska Valley, luring poor landowners with the promise of thousands of dollars per year to sign a 20 year lease. That document includes a gag order and denies any responsibility on the part of the wind company for any kind of damage. The municipal government seems all too ready to swallow Skypower's promises and misleading advertizing, reluctant to ask tough questions, like:
Which nuclear plant will shut down because of these turbines?
Why will our Hydro costs go up, not down?
Who will pay to widen our roads for transporting the tower components, and to fix the roads after tower construction?
Who will pay for fire control when a turbine is hit by lightning, and how will we prevent forest fires like the ones industrial wind turbines caused in Australia?
How will we prevent our property values from plummeting as they have in other areas when these turbines were erected?
What will happen to people who get sick from the low frequency noise, can't sleep, and can't move because no one will buy their house? Will they have to abandon their homes, as others have in Ontario?
What exactly is the benefit to our township, other than the privilege of making the Skypower shareholders rich and allowing our government to call itself 'green'?
The public must get informed, and fast, before the contracts are signed. If not, we'll go down the same road as so many other communities before us, and live to regret it.
Check out www.wind-watch.org for detailed information, links to groups all over the world working to prevent industrial wind turbines and a response plan for when your community is targeted by a wind company."
"Skypower and other wind companies are here too, in the Madawaska Valley, luring poor landowners with the promise of thousands of dollars per year to sign a 20 year lease. That document includes a gag order and denies any responsibility on the part of the wind company for any kind of damage. The municipal government seems all too ready to swallow Skypower's promises and misleading advertizing, reluctant to ask tough questions, like:
Which nuclear plant will shut down because of these turbines?
Why will our Hydro costs go up, not down?
Who will pay to widen our roads for transporting the tower components, and to fix the roads after tower construction?
Who will pay for fire control when a turbine is hit by lightning, and how will we prevent forest fires like the ones industrial wind turbines caused in Australia?
How will we prevent our property values from plummeting as they have in other areas when these turbines were erected?
What will happen to people who get sick from the low frequency noise, can't sleep, and can't move because no one will buy their house? Will they have to abandon their homes, as others have in Ontario?
What exactly is the benefit to our township, other than the privilege of making the Skypower shareholders rich and allowing our government to call itself 'green'?
The public must get informed, and fast, before the contracts are signed. If not, we'll go down the same road as so many other communities before us, and live to regret it.
Check out www.wind-watch.org for detailed information, links to groups all over the world working to prevent industrial wind turbines and a response plan for when your community is targeted by a wind company."
Friday, August 1, 2008
Welcome to the Wilno Wind Power Coalition!
We have developed this site to demonstrate our concerns about the proposed "Wind Farm" which is being developed for installation in our Beautiful Hills of Wilno.
Hopefully by showing the visual impact that these huge industrial turbines will have on our local landscape we can all share the concerns held by many of our fellow neighbours.
We also have a section that will bring anyone who is interested in knowing more about these machines "up to speed" fairly quickly so that informed decisions can be made.
Enjoy and feel free to post your comments whether it is positive or negative.
Open dialogue is the corner stone of a democratic process and the more "open" a discussion is the better it will reach a FAIR conclusion.
Hopefully by showing the visual impact that these huge industrial turbines will have on our local landscape we can all share the concerns held by many of our fellow neighbours.
We also have a section that will bring anyone who is interested in knowing more about these machines "up to speed" fairly quickly so that informed decisions can be made.
Enjoy and feel free to post your comments whether it is positive or negative.
Open dialogue is the corner stone of a democratic process and the more "open" a discussion is the better it will reach a FAIR conclusion.
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