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

The Daily Observer

2 August 2008