Nova Scotians may face higher electricity costs in the short term as the province moves toward cleaner and renewable energy, says the man in charge of overseeing Nova Scotia's renewable energy strategy. Dalhousie University's David Wheeler said Monday it is inevitable Nova Scotia Power customers will face a jump in prices ..."If we end up with a global carbon energy tax, then producing energy from coal is going to be very expensive for Nova Scotia consumers," Mr. Wheeler told reporters.

P.E.I. must care for the North Shore's famous views when expanding wind power generation, says the Dune Shores Tourism Association. The Island often uses views of the area east and west of Cavendish to sell the Island to tourists. But the province wants to triple its wind power generation, and a group has come forward to build in the area.

A full gallery last night at Prince Edward County Council. The crowd was made up of local real estate professionals, and tourism business operators. They are dead set against industrial wind farms anywhere near homes and business in the County.

Billions of dollars in upgrades to Alberta's power transmission network will hit consumers in the pocketbook. The province's electrical operator says the average consumer will see power bills go up by $8 a month to pay for the first phase of projects, which have an estimated price tag of $8.1 billion.

The group fighting Shear Wind's Glen Dhu turbine project says property values could drop in the area if the development goes ahead. Susan Overmyer, media relations for the Eco Awareness Society, said several recent studies show home values could deteriorate by "20 to 30 per cent" if turbines are built in the proposed area near Baileys Brook.

Ontario shouldn't take the head office decision as a slight, said Laferrere. "The reason we chose Montreal is that it is already the centre of the wind industry in Canada," he said, pointing to the existence of other wind-turbine manufacturers around the area. "It's good to be in the same place as the others if you want to hire people." Laferrere suggested the concern was overblown. "This isn't a huge announcement here, it's just a structural and organizational announcement."

Lower prices for crude oil and natural gas may not have a lasting impact on expansion of the alternative energy sector in Western Canada-- but the current worldwide economic slowdown will, observers predict. ..."When push comes to shove in the budget process and you're concerned with funding people versus funding things, the short-run discount of protecting lives virtually always wins and investing in the future by building more renewables or encouraging more R&D in renewables tends to get less attention." That translates into fewer direct or indirect subsidies and fewer regulations designed to encourage the use of alternative energy.

Both animal and human health is suffering from stray voltage that can cause catastrophic problems in the barn. But nailing down the precise causes and where the responsibility lies has proved a long and difficult struggle Driven out of business as a result of a raft of health and behaviour problems suffered by their herd, beef producers Ross and Darlene Brindley are suing Hydro One Networks Inc. and Edmonton Power Corporation (EPCOR) for a hefty $5 million. They claim that stray voltage from EPCOR's wind turbines not only destroyed their herd, but has also had a severe impact on their own health as well. And they are not alone.

Last week the provincial government announced an ambitious $1-billion wind development plan to generate another 500 megawatts of wind power by the year 2013. The government has mapped out where the new wind turbines might go and many are slated to be put up along the tourist area of the North Shore.

A northcoast crabbers' organization is asking for a formal panel review of the NaiKun wind project, which plans to erect up to 100 turbines in Hecate Strait. The formal submission made earlier this month to the provincial Environmental Assessment Office by the Rupert-based Area "A" Crab Association requests the NaiKun project be referred to a panel review so it can receive funding to resolve what it calls major concerns about the proposed NaiKun Wind Farm.

About two-dozen unemployed millwrights set up a picket line Thursday to slow trucks delivering massive wind turbine parts from Windsor to the $200-million Kruger Energy project. Rick Anderson of Millwright Local 1244 said the erection of the 80-metre-high steel towers and 45-metre-long blades should be done by his union's skilled trades workers. He warned that if bolts loosen because of improper tightening techniques the towers could topple. ...About seven truckloads of turbine parts are sent daily from Morterm Windsor docks. Ships from Denmark and China bring in the turbine sections.

The road to economic prosperity is paved green. That's the pitch the town's business and political leaders will hear at an economic summit next week. ...It's not clear if the town is ready for a green revolution. Businessman Lori Collazino ran into considerable opposition with his proposal to turn toxic General Chemical lands into a wind farm. ...While some towns in the county have set up their own rules on wind farms, all are waiting for countywide policies that go to county council for approval on Wednesday. More than a dozen wind farm projects have been proposed, but there is also considerable resident opposition.

The location of the wind farm in this area has been a point of contention for many crab fishermen who have voiced their concerns over the past year, such as Area A crab fisherman Itch Verne. "The proposed first phase of the Naikun Wind Farm project will cover approximately 30 per cent of traditional crab fishing grounds in Hecate Straight," said Mr. Verne in a recent letter to Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn. "Fishers will not be able to set gear near the area during or after construction. Phase 1 will severely reduce the fishing grounds, forcing fishers to be more concentrated in the remaining available area, resulting in less production per vessel, more trap loss and navigational hazards."

Quebec's stringent "local content" requirements for wind-farm developers do little for most Quebec wind-energy businesses, but will increase rates for all Hydro-Québec customers, several experts in the field say. Under the terms of the call for tender for 2,000 megawatts of wind-generated electricity, developers must guarantee the expenditure of at least 30 per cent of wind-turbine costs in the economically troubled Gaspé region and at least 60 per cent of total wind farm costs in Quebec. "This will make wind power more costly," Université Laval economist Jean-Thomas Bernard said.

A $230-million wind farm near O'Leary could be in jeopardy. The P.E.I. government says Ventus Energy, which is developing the 55 wind turbines, is seeking concessions to a four-year deal it signed last year - concessions the province says are unacceptable. The two sides are still talking, but Environment Minister George Webster said he has no intention of agreeing to a deal which he says gives the Island's resources away. He described those resources as P.E.I.'s "oil and gas'' and added the concessions being asked for by Ventus would cost the Island "significantly.'' He would not disclose exact figures.

Projects are picking up the most speed in Ontario, where the provincial government has embraced wind energy as a symbol of its green friendliness, and municipalities are signing on with a fervour because the province's above-market prices mean they can reap cash in land sales and tax revenues. But as Canada experiences a rapid rise in these developments, there is a growing opposition to wind power as a clean energy alternative, with complaints that it is high-cost, energy-inefficient, causes noise pollution and even wreaks havoc on birds' migratory patterns. After raising many of these concerns with the Ontario Municipal Board, residents of Wolfe Island, Ont., celebrated a victory this week when plans for an 86-turbine megaproject by Canadian Hydro Developers, Inc. was modified to place the turbines farther away from residential areas and wetlands.

The Bruce County Federation of Agriculture is calling for measures to protect the county's tourism industry, farming operations and municipalities from the rapidly developing wind energy industry. "Recent studies in other countries have shown that large wind generating areas and tourism are not compatible. It would be a shame to lose the gains we have made in tourism by not having planning in place to make sure our tourism industry stays vibrant," federation president Robert Emerson told Bruce County council's agriculture, tourism and planning committee on Thursday.

A portion of the wind energy generated from newly installed wind turbines located in PEI was wheeled through PEI and New Brunswick and sold to the New England Power Pool (NEPOOL) via the international interconnection node in Keswick, N.B. The renewable energy certificates (RECs) that were generated from this transmission were sold separately to independent buyers located in the NEPOOL.

"Our analysis finds that there are no insurmountable legal, economic or technical barriers to withdrawing from ISO-NE," he said. "Viable alternatives to ISO-NE now exist, such as the formation of a Maine independent transmission company or the creation of a Maine-Canadian Maritimes market." Adams said the MPUC continues to study both options and will make its recommendations in a final report to the Legislature in January 2008. The preliminary report indicates that the final report will focus on "opportunities" with Canada's Maritime provinces.

THERE'S TROUBLE brewing in Nova Scotia's quest for wind energy. We all know the importance of developing our valuable abundance of clean, green renewable energy in order to offset the greenhouse gases produced by Nova Scotia Power's coal-fired generation plants. Our government has legislated aggressive renewable energy targets for the near future. So wind energy is good, right? Well not always, according to many of the folks from Pugwash.