Merkur said the company is meeting all ministry environmental standards, and the Amherstburg project has been more heavily scrutinized than most as a result of appeals all the way up to the environment minister. But residents opposing the 10-megawatt South Side project pointed out the company also didn't promise to meet the town's 600-metre setback from turbines and their homes.

"What do we have to do to make you pack up your bags and go away?" said Durham-area resident Joan Rawski. She was among about 400 people who packed the Durham community centre for a public information meeting on wind energy Thursday evening. Florida-based Nextera Energy wants to put up about a dozen wind turbines east of Priceville and many residents of West Grey are opposed to the plan and say they will fight the proposal.

A confrontational ratepayers meeting in the town of Durham last night left Municipality of West Grey council with no doubts that residents are concerned about a wind farm proposal for the area. By the time question period rolled around, uniformed West Grey police officers were circling the crowd, reminding everyone to keep their emotions under control.

Dufferin-Caledon MPP Sylvia Jones says the Ontario government's recent $7 billion deal with a South Korean consortium to bolster the province's green technology industry will have dire consequences for electricity consumers. Premier Dalton McGuinty signed an agreement with Samsung C and T and the Korea Electric Power Corporation that will see $7 billion invested in Ontario to create 16,000 new jobs over six years.

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.

Residents of West Grey and surrounding municipalities have a chance to learn more about industrial wind turbines and their effects on health, the local economy and property values. Speakers at a meeting being organized by West Grey council later this week include a representative of Nextera, a Florida-based company that plans to build a dozen industrial turbines west of Priceville.

As wind farms sprout up around the world, but aviation specialists are raising concerns that the giant turbines create blackout zones for air traffic control radars. The spinning blades are being detected by the radars, presenting false images or generating so much clutter on radar screens that controllers are losing track of aircraft as they fly near the wind farms.

Several residents living near the proposed five-turbine South Side Wind Farm are looking for answers and it appears town council is also seeking more information on the project. ...There are still questions over noise studies with MacCorquodale adding town council has been "put on notice" with regards to health and property assessment issues.

Residents opposing a $25-million wind turbine project along Con. 6 want to know which rules apply -- the town's tougher zoning bylaw or the new guidelines of Ontario's Green Energy Act. Town council didn't have clear answers for them Monday on the future of GenGrowth's 10-megawatt South Side project.

Niagara businesses could cash in on a $7-billion green-energy investment in Ontario by a South Korean conglomerate headed by Samsung, but local wind energy developers wonder whether they'll be muscled out of the clean power picture. ...The Association of Power Producers of Ontario said its members feel like they were "thrown under a bus." Locally, wind developers called the deal unfair to small players.

The fate of a proposed wind turbine farm in central Innisfil will be decided by the provincial government under the new Green Energy Act. ...Schneider's plan, which is opposed by nearby residents and the owner of the Cookstown Aerodome, will be reviewed by the province using limited input from the town.

Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister is eyeing the potential for wind power along Haiti's coastline as part of the effort to improve the earthquake ravaged country's capacity for power production. ...But experts say that wind energy ...is too expensive and unreliable as a short-term source of power to fuel reconstruction.

There is mounting anger within the Liberal caucus over Premier Dalton McGuinty's decision to award a $7 billion green-energy deal to a South Korean consortium, sources told the Star. MPPs, who were advised on a conference call that the controversial accord with Samsung C&T and Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) would be proceeding, complain they had no input on an arrangement.

An Oshawa-based power supplier says the province turned its back on the local green energy industry and is giving a South Korean-based company special treatment in an energy deal announced Thursday. Premier Dalton McGuinty announced that the province negotiated an agreement with the consortium of Samsung C&T Corp. and the state-owned Korean Power Electric Corp.

Ontario's $7-billion energy deal with South Korea's Samsung Group could jeopardize construction of Essex County's biggest wind turbine project, which has had eight years of local planning and environmental study. Brookfield Renewable Power wants to build close to 100 turbines in Lakeshore with a cost in excess of $400 million for the 200-megawatt project.

Niagara businesses could cash in on a $7-billion green-energy investment in Ontario by a South Korean conglomerate headed by Samsung, but local wind developers wonder whether they'll be muscled out of the clean power picture. Premier Dalton McGuinty announced the massive deal Thursday, which includes a $437-million provincial subsidy over 25 years.

"We might see windmills out on the water on the lakefront. We might see windmills close to shore in Port Dover," Travale said Thursday following Queen's Park's announcement that it has approved a $7 billion wind-solar project by a Korean consortium headed up by Samsung. "We have no say in the matter anymore. We can jump up and down and beat our chests but they have total control."

With Premier Dalton McGuinty expected to announce, maybe as early as today, a $7 billion deal which would see wind farms sprouting up across the province, some still hope to put the brakes on the controversial installations. Mapleton Township councillors recently passed a motion asking for a provincial moratorium on new wind farms, after receiving a 250-name petition opposed to one such project south-east of Arthur.

A retired Queen's University physics professor says wind farms don't live up to the hype generated by energy companies and governments. John Harrison says that for the final six months of 2009, the Wolfe Island wind farm operated at about one-quarter efficiency.

Township resident David Colling attended the Jan. 11 council meeting and said he wanted to clear up any misconception about the wind turbine company burying the transmission lines. He said not all lines have been buried yet and families are not able to move back into their homes.