Wind Farm Property Leases
Friday, December 14th, 2007
In 2006, a group of resident’s near what was hoped to be Canada’s second largest wind farm, opposed the property leases for the project being built by Enbridge Inc. in Bruce County, Ontario. The wind farm is located Northwest of Toronto, on the shores of Lake Huron. The original proposal was to add 182 megawatts. The group of residents were concerned that the wind farm would be noisy and unsightly. Ontario is Canada’s most populous province and consumes vast amounts of energy produced from Coal, Nuclear, Hydro and a very small amount of green sources. Apparently, these residents would rather suffer from acid rain, increases in green house gases, air pollution, and face the risks of a nuclear accident; as opposed to harnessing the free clean power available from the wind farm on the shores of Lake Erie, and Lake Huron. These winds will blow with or without these short sighted residents. I am sure these same people have no problem turning on the lights, heat and air conditioning in their houses.
The delay in the year long regulatory process exceeded $20 million. Before overruns, the project was expected to cost $400 million and be operational by the spring of 2007. Now at the end of 2007, the project has been scaled back to 110 turbines, with the foundations for 20 of those in the ground now. The first power to be generated from the project is now expected in the Spring of 2008. Full operation of the wind farm is expected in the fall of 2008.
It is baffles me why people scream that we need to do something about our world; and then when private industry steps up to pay the bill for making the necessarcy changes; they get upset even though they aren’t having to foot the bill through additional taxes to make the shift in power generation technology.
Each one of these residents should have their power from the grid shut off, so they can see how much of their lives revolve around having steady, on demand, power at their finger tips. I bet each one of them would be begging to have a wind turbine sitting on their property causing a “noisy and unsightly” improvement to their yards. They probably wouldn’t even negotiate a Property Lease for the turbine, but would give up the space in exchange for an extension cord.
Am I missing something here? DO SOMETHING, BUT DON’T MAKE ME BE PART OF IT!! These residents really aren’t the “brightest bulbs in the pack”.