Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh Township Reeve Ben Van Diepenbeek believes council is satisfied with the Environmental Screening Report (ESR) for the Kingsbridge II Wind Power Project. About 15 township residents and 15 representatives from EPCOR, including Paul McMillan, senior vice president of Ontario, and Michael Smith, manager of policy and programs environment, as well as Stantec Consulting Ltd., filled the council chambers on Dec. 19 to hear the review of the ESR.

His neighbours, however, testified at the OMB hearings that they felt the turbine would be invasive and could be dangerous if the tall pole with a turbine on top fell over. Even though the turbine has been designed specifically for residential areas, the OMB said in its June ruling that it supported Findlay's neighbour's concerns.

The company behind a $275-million wind farm wants to start work in the spring, although the plans appear to be bogged down in bureaucracy. Canadian Hydro, a Calgary-based company, already operates a 45-turbine facility in Melancthon Township. The company is seeking approvals for 88 more turbines in the second phase of the wind project in Shelburne, Ont. The project is facing a great deal of opposition and will require hundreds of approvals — from the federal government to the township.

The Township of Madawaska Valley Council has slapped a moratorium on the approval of any wind turbine projects until next year's municipal elections, at which time voters will have a chance to vote on the wind farm issue in a referendum question attached to their ballots. The move came after an at-times heated debate on the issue at Monday night's regular council meeting.

An end is in sight for the Wind Turbine issue in Ashfield-Colbourne-Wawanosh Council last night passed a resolution on how far away new homes must be built from the wind turbines, and vice versa. This resolution is simply to amend the by-law that is being made on distances and noise allowances from the turbines. Currently, turbines and new homes must be built 400 metres away from each other. The resolution is asking for the by-law to be amended to a distance of 450 metres away. ...Millian says council is also guided by the MOE in terms of how many decibels the turbines can project, which is currently at 40 decibels.

Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh Township council is not pleased that EPCOR is not responding to the public’s concerns. “EPCOR is not coming through with the information we have asked for,” said Reeve Ben Van Diepenbeek, following council’s Jan. 16 meeting. Van Diepenbeek said the public continues to address concerns to council of noise and of EPCOR not responding to their concerns. He said township resident Ross Brindley has also expressed concerns of stray voltage in his barn which he says were not there until after the wind turbines were built.

Legislator, Claude Roy, has denounced wind energy as a free-for-all and unseemly. The representative from Montmagny-L' Islet hopes to present a proposal aiming to nationalization the industry in the province. UnTil that happens, he wants to see a moratorium on all projects.

The contribution Lake Erie winds make to Ontario’s green electricity generation is about to increase. AIM PowerGen plans on erecting 12 additional turbines in the southwest corner of Norfolk County. To be erected in two clusters of six, the Cultus and Frogmore groups as AIM refers to them, will connect into the provincial electrical grid near the two villages. Total electrical output is expected to be between 18 and 20 megawatts.

CALGARY - The Stelmach government foresees nearly doubling the amount of wind-power generation allowed in Alberta, says Energy Minister Mel Knight, even as the province remains the only jurisdiction in Canada to cap the production of wind energy. Industry groups are demanding the province go further than raising the amount of production permitted and remove the cap.

The industry association that represents the nation’s wind power generators has partnered with Alberta’s electric system operator for a ground-breaking study into wind forecasting that could open the door to billions of dollars in wind power investment. The study of Alberta’s wind resource is seen as a key step in allowing this province’s wind generation industry — already Canada’s largest — to expand beyond a 900-megawatt limit the Alberta Electric System Operator imposed in May 2006. With help from the Alberta government, the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) and the AESO announced Wednesday the one-year, $1-million study will get underway in March paving the way for more wind power in Alberta.

Wind power advocates are unhappy with the Alberta government for suggesting that the current cap on wind energy in the province might be raised, rather than eliminated completely. Last year the province's energy operator set a "threshold" of 900 megawatts for wind power production, because of concerns that amounts above that level could destabilize the power grid. As wind is intermittent and requires backup, anything above that level could be a problem, the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) said. About 500 MW of wind power is generated in the province already, and many more projects in the planning stages would push past the 900 MW mark.

Ontario will overtake Alberta as the wind-power capital of Canada by the end of the year, in part because Alberta doesn’t have enough transmission lines to connect new wind turbines to its power grid.

Altalink may be making headway in its bid to install a 1,250 megawatt-capacity transmission line that will transport power generated by Pincher Creek wind farms to Lethbridge. "Right now we're just in the final stages of something," AltaLink spokesman Scott Schreiner told The Echo recently. He declined to elaborate, but added that details would be made available soon.

Amaranth council has effectively appealed a Ministry of Environment decision not to order a full environmental assessment of the Canadian Hydro Developers (CHD) 88-turbine Melancthon II wind-farm project. Director James O'Mara of the ministry's Approvals Branch, in a letter dated March 9 to the 15 persons who had requested elevation of the ESR to "an individual environmental assessment," noted the rationale for acceptance of each aspect of the report to which the requesters had objected. "The issues and concerns raised by (the requesters) were extensively reviewed. I am satisfied that the issues and concerns have been addressed by the work done to date by (CHD), or will be addressed in future work that is required to be carried out, and to which commitments have been made by (CHD) in its ESR and other Project documentation," Mr. O'Mara said in his letter. Although the decision was taken March 9, it was not technically released until March 19. This gave the requesters until April 2 to seek a ministerial review. At its meeting on March 21, Amaranth council instructed Thomson Rogers lawyer Jeff Wilker to request a review. As of last Friday, Melancthon Township had not made a similar request, had not called a special meeting, and does not meet until April 5 - three days after the deadline for appeals. Although the director's decision indicates that the project may now proceed, "subject to any other permits or approvals required," the matter is before the Ontario Municipal Board, at least with respect to Amaranth. (At the OMB pre-hearing recently, Melancthon indicated it could proceed with zoning upon approval of the ESR.)

The aspiring applicants were asked to withhold their applications until the council had received its peer review of CHD's environmental screening report, along with the Environment ministry's review of the same document and other studies including a "wake model" to show the effects of CHD's proposal.

The conclusion of the Ontario Municipal Board hearing into the Amaranth portion of the 132- megawatt Melancthon II wind farm is being scheduled for the township offices at Laurel on Feb. 27 and 28. ...At the earlier hearing, Mr. Jackson indicated his dissatisfaction with an earlier Certificate of Approval for the first of two 230 kV transformers at a time when neighbour Paul Thompson and others said they were still unhappy with the noise abatement.

GULF SHORE - Nova Scotia's songbird wishes a proposed wind farm in Gulf Shore would just fly away. Singer Anne Murray, who has a summer home in the area, is joining other residents in opposing the construction by Atlantic Wind Power Corp. of 20 to 27 100-metre-high wind turbines in the province's northwest corner. ``I just think it's too close. It's in all our backyards,'' said Murray, who grew up in nearby Springhill.

A wind turbine project presented to Amaranth council proposes to build turbines in the southern part of the municipality to provide discounted energy first to Orangeville -- and then Amaranth. Robert Younker, head of the Orangeville and Dufferin Wind Cooperative (Orange Wind), says he's hoping Amaranth landowners are willing to consider the project -- and the monetary incentives it would bring. The plan calls for 12 18-mW turbines on land in southeast Amaranth, where landowners receive a four per cent royalty -- roughly $15,000 to $20,000 a year. Younker also suggests that though the Orange Wind initiative, royalties will rise as the Ontario electricity prices go up.

In a flyer apparently deposited in many township mail boxes, a group calling itself the "Melancthon Ratepayers Legal Defense Group" is asking for donations at a Shelburne post office box, but has not revealed the names of any individual involved with the group. The distribution followed hard on the heels of Melancthon Council's recent resolution to support the position of Canadian Hydro Developers Inc. (CHD) at the Ontario Municipal Board hearings. In the flyer, the group is accusing the township of not properly scrutinizing the Environment Screening Report for the 88 turbines of the Melancthon Wind Project's Phase 2. It is asking for greater setbacks in the interests of what it calls "better planning."

A city committee decided Wednesday to postpone its decision until at least Thursday about whether Graham Findlay should be allowed to install a power-generating turbine on top of a 10-metre pole in the yard of his home near Fisher Park. ...About 20 of Findlay's neighbours showed up at the committee meeting Wednesday to express their opposition to the turbine.