Crab fishermen don’t want to get pushed off their fishing ground by a wind energy project in Hecate Strait. Geoff Gould, director for Area A Crab Association says crab fishermen are competing with Nai Kun Wind Development for the same 550 square kilometre piece of real estate in Hecate Strait.

Nicholas Schaut of Meaford says he was so stressed from years of living near a Shelburne wind farm that he can't stay long on return visits to his former home. He's saddened to see that once happy community disrupted as wind farms pit neighbour against neighbour, some favouring them for the money they bring in, others opposed for reasons of health, noise and unsightliness. "This kind of industrial development is ripping communities apart."

Leamington has joined the Town of Essex in approving a one-year ban on new wind and solar power projects until a county planning study is done to help put some controls in place.

Levine said there are currently no peer-reviewed medical studies that link the presence of wind turbines to illnesses. And although some wind energy companies say turbines increase the value of rural properties, Marshall said no one wants to buy land in the vicinity of a wind farm. He's had to reduce the asking price for his property, which is about 550 metres from the nearest wind tower, but still hasn't had any offers. "When (EPCOR) first came in and started proposing the turbines, we took their word for everything. We didn't know what these things would be like. I was even interested at first. We were the guinea pigs."

British Columbia's pursuit of electricity self-sufficiency should provide an unprecedented boost for a green energy sector that has until now failed to compete with hydro power, a wind project proponent said on Wednesday. ..."We believe our projects are economical -- wind is never going to be as cheap as hydroelectricity.

A biologist with Environment Canada says there is little evidence to support the theory windmills pose a danger to migratory birds in Ontario. During a public information meeting on windmills here Wednesday evening, Dr. Lyle Friesen told a crowd of 150 that data collected from one of the earliest North American wind farm developments in Altamont Pass, California, is not relevant to newer developments, including those proposed for the north shore of Lake Ontario.

Bluewater Council considered a proposed zoning by-law amendment to introduce regulations governing the location of wind energy facilities within the municipality. Council anticipated to defer the by-law to permit further discussion. That recommendation was later passed. In a report from Senior Planner, Craig Metzger, it is recommended that the by-law amendment be approved. It is also recommended that the draft for the site plan guidelines be adopted by council. The zoning by-laws for Bayfield, Zurich and Hensall are proposed to be amended to permit small scale wind energy facilities (under 50kW) subject to certain location restrictions while prohibiting all commercial scale wind energy facilities in the area covered by these zoning by-laws.

About five company representatives circulated through the dense crowd at an open house Wednesday in a Grafton church hall. They were bombarded with questions related to information sheets on the walls extolling the virtues of wind power, together with a small map of the area being considered for five to 10 towers, according to one sign. A newspaper advertisement, however, said up to 20 were being considered.

A contro­versial bylaw regulating the construction of wind farms in Cumberland County was ap­proved Wednesday, much to the dismay of its opponents. "We're really disgusted with council, we all are," said Lisa Betts of Gulf Shore. "We provid­ed the county with a ton of infor­mation. This is a complicated is­sue and it's not one where one size fits all. We had hoped that common sense would prevail, but it hasn't."

He said municipalities are responding to unfounded local concerns about health risks like noise ..."Controls are approved by people who don't understand the issues and who are scared of change." He said if some people do not like the appearance of wind turbines they should just look the other way.

The stakes are getting higher for a Bedford renewable energy company to deliver wind-generated electricity on time. Shear Wind Inc. has posted a $1.5-million security deposit to Nova Scotia Power to deliver the green power to the utility by the end of this year, according to documents filed with securities regulators Friday. Shear Wind says it has agreed to the performance security deposit as part of its contract with the utility.

The final project, if approved, will consist of 26 wind turbines with an output of 46.8 megawatts -- not the 29 towers putting out 52.2 megawatts the company outlined in its notice of the meeting and on a storyboard there, Ansar Gafur, IPC's vice-president of external relations, said.

One of Canada's up-and-coming wind power developers, EarthFirst Canada Inc., has called in consultants to look for "strategic alternatives" after its key project in British Columbia was hit with cost overruns and a lowered estimate of potential energy production. EarthFirst's predicament underlines the precarious economics of the wind business - especially for small developers - even at a time of booming growth for the industry. ...EarthFirst has seen its stock price plunge to less than 50 cents in the past few months ...after the announcement in early July that the projected capital cost of building its initial Dokie 1 wind project in northeastern British Columbia had risen by $35-million, to $360-million.

Duguid was asked again and again by readers if he'd be willing to live next to wind turbines of the sort he is pushing across the province. ...But while Duguid wrote much about the benefits of wind power - more than 600 words over the course of 11 responses - he wrote nothing of whether he personally would be willing to live next to a turbine.

Canada is the biggest exporter of oil to the United States, and one might expect environmentalists to cheer the prospect of exchanging a little of our dependence on foreign oil for dependence on foreign wind. But some fear that a flood of clean power from Canada will undercut New England's efforts to become a national leader in green energy and technology. Jobs could be lost, they caution, and local utilities may have less incentive to reduce their use of coal and other fossil fuels that contribute to global warming. Concerns also exist that the construction of expensive transmission lines to bring renewable energy from Canada could drive up the region's electricity rates, already among the highest in the country.

Renewable Energy Services Ltd. said yesterday it has made a deal with Nova Scotia Power Inc. to sell a total of 6.4 megawatts to its parent company Emera Inc. for $1.4 million per year. That means RESL will likely build five new turbines in addition to the four it already has.

The province's four wind farms have a combined nameplate capacity of 396 megawatts. However, actual output as the wind subsided ranged from a high of 106 megawatts at midnight Monday to a low generally in the teens or slightly above throughout Tuesday...In the mean time, electrical consumption was approaching the records that had been set during the summer of 2006

A Central Huron-based group of concerned ratepayers is launching a class-action lawsuit in relation to two wind farm projects planned for the municipality.

Disgruntled wind co-op says it will bypass Nova Scotia Power transmission and distribution lines and sell electricity directly to interested customers

Canada's wind power industry is predicting a resurgence in 2008, after finishing a disappointing year of turbine installations in 2007. But the factors that slowed the completion of projects in 2007 - vocal opposition that delayed municipal approvals, concerns over the reliability and cost of wind power, and questions about environmental impacts - are still likely to dog the industry in 2008. ...Still, for an industry that widely touts its green credentials as an emission-free generator of power, its vocal opponents will not go away. ...Independent energy adviser Tom Adams, a long-time critic of the wind industry, has high praise for Alberta's efforts to improve forecasting. But he says the industry has much more to do if it is to become a credible green alternative, including acknowledging that the power output from wind turbines is often far less than initial projections.