Skip to content

Archive for April 5th, 2012

Apr 5

South Africa — Wind farms may well be another ‘bubble’ that is doomed to burst

Terry Mackenzie-hoy — Engineering Online — April 6, 2012

No, I am not going to write about the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research again. This article is all about what is happening with wind farms or, more correctly, who is doing what with which and to who. Or whom.

Currently, there are 56 applications for wind farms, a total of about 10 000 MW. Of these, 22 have been approved.

Now it would appear that, given all this, South Africa is well on its way to reaching its renewable targets. Are the wind farms viable? In this article, I look at one wind farm project, espoused by a firm called Innowind, which is behind 17 wind farms…

In Qunu, the air is unpolluted and you can still see the Tembu and Xhosa women in their colourful and traditional dress with white-ochre-tattooed faces to protect their skins from the sun and enhance their beauty. These same pastures are where Mandela herded cattle and sheep and where you can find his retirement home and the Nelson Mandela Youth and Heritage Centre.

Link to full article, including financial analysis of the wind industry

Apr 5

1 Comment

Jobs trumps green energy: Fort council

James Culic — Niagara this Week — April 5, 2012

Employment should be Region’s priority

Council endorsed the latest draft plan of the Niagara Gateway Community Improvement Plan handed down by the Region on Monday, but councillors had a few recommendations of their own they’d like to see added.

“Frankly I could care less if you’re using green energy — it’s great if you are — but we can’t make that a priority,” said Ward 1 Coun. Stephen Passero, who along with the rest of council, felt the plan lacked the necessary focus on jobs.

“We can’t be worried about wind turbines or low-energy lighting, above all else we need to be getting people employed,” said Passero.

Link to article in Niagara this Week

Apr 5

article-1361316-0D63A1E3000005DC-930_634x403

Ontario’s Power Trip: The great electricity bill cover-up

Sharp — Financial Post — April 4, 2012

Ontarians will pay $319 more per year for green energy soon — despite government denials

he Ontario green-energy ship is taking on water and yet one would never know it from how the captain is talking. On March 22, the provincial government announced the results of its highly anticipated feed-in tariff (FIT) review and the message from the bridge was “Everything’s fine … stay the course.”

In supporting this message, the current captain/Minister of Energy Chris Bentley made reference to how green energy accounts for only about 5% of the increase in electricity bills. The problem with such a statement is it begs many questions, including 5% of what, and over what period?
np-related]

A recent electricity price-increase forecast for 2012-16, filed with the Ontario Energy Board, helpfully provides answers, with wind and solar energy forecast to directly add $3.05-billion to annual provincial energy bills. Furthermore, if one makes conservative estimates for the costs required to integrate wind and solar, the added annual cost rises another $850-million. So, the additional annual cost for wind and solar will reach $3.9-billion by 2016, resulting in a residential bill increase of 3.17¢ per kilowatt hour or an annual $319 per household by 2016. In contrast to the current captain’s recent statement, this represents 54% of the total increase expected for 2012-16.

This number is a lot higher than 5%, so how did we get here?

Link to full article in the Financial Post

Apr 5

Wind turbine overrun

The Morrisburg Leader — April 4, 2012

What is a “wind farm” exactly? The term sounds rather harmless, doesn’t it? Does it make you picture the colourful cartoon-sized windmills of yesterday? If that’s true, you’re probably in for a horrifying surprise.

The industrial wind turbines being erected all over Ontario do not come anywhere close to such an idyllic picture. In fact, they  look more like something you’d see watching War of the Worlds. In truth, they’re gigantic machines that are invading rural Ontario, (thanks to Premier McGuinty). Machines. Gigantic. Think about it please. Visit Wolfe Island and see for yourself… it’s a relatively short drive from South Dundas. (Or, watch the documentary, Windfall.)

And, if you’re one of those people who think that “wind farms” aren’t your problem, think again! The South Branch Wind project is on the verge of taking physical shape.

Link to complete article

Apr 5

Charles Adler — Green Dust in the Wind

Thank you Mr. Adler. We’re in your debt. Unlike the deafening silence heard from mainstream media, you’re our voice. We’re extremely grateful.

Apr 5

Wind Turbines and their effects on Autistic Individuals

As the mother of a son with Asperger’s Syndrome (a higher functioning form of Autism), I have taken a special interest in how wind turbines can affect those who deal with this disorder, especially children.  Although Matthew, my son, is now 30 years old, I know he is still highly sensitive to sounds that the rest of us don’t even notice.   As a small boy, he would run screaming and crying, with his hands over his ears, whenever a large truck or piece of equipment would pass by him while he was outside.  To the rest of the world, it would have just been a truck.  But to Matthew, you could tell that not only did the noise scare him, but it hurt him as well.

This extreme sensitivity to sound leads me to believe that children with autism would be especially vulnerable to the infrasound noise and vibrations created by industrial wind turbines, that may not hurt another individual.

According to Dr. Stephen Stansfield:

“Noise sensitivity may be compromised of two elements. Noise is important to noise-sensitive people who attend to noise more, discriminate between noise more, and tend to find noises more threatening and out of their control that people who are not sensitive to noise.

Secondly, because of negative affinity, they react to noises more than less sensitive people, and may adapt to noises more slowly. This may result in a greater expression of annoyance to noises than in less sensitive people.”

From Acoustic Ecology:

“The accepted view is that sensitivity to noise can be considered a stable personality trait,and as such an individual’s tolerance to peripheral sound is measurable on a continuum.  Research in the last decade has demonstrated that individuals report a wide range of different responses to noise ranging from highly tolerant to highly sensitive, though the basis for these individual differences are understudied and poorly understood.

Anontrivial number of individuals are noise sensitive, and suffer impaired health as aresult. It has been estimated that noise sensitive individuals make up approximately 15% of the general population, and more so in certain clinical populations (e.g., brain injury,dyslexia, schizophrenia, autism).

Noise-sensitive individuals characteristically suffer from noise-induced irritability, stress-related disease, headaches, and poor sleep, all of which strongly negate good health and quality of life.

Noise sensitivity has a large impact on noise annoyance ratings, lowering the annoyance threshold by 11 dB (Miedema & Vos, 1999). Furthermore, there is an interaction between noise level and noise sensitivity.

Annoyance scores increase rapidly as noise level increases for those sensitive to noise, whilst it stays relatively flat for those insensitive to noise (Miedema & Vos, 2003). Research also informs us that noise sensitive individuals are particularly vulnerable to low frequency noise.

For example, it has been shown that in noise sensitive individuals the introduction of low frequency noise can boost salivary cortisol levels (Persson et al. 2002). However, while there is a strong correlation between noise sensitivity and annoyance there is a weak correlation between noise sensitivity and noise level (Miedema & Vos, 2003):  “Noise sensitivity changes the influence of noise exposure on noise annoyance, and does not only have an additive effect, i.e., it affects the rate at which annoyance increaseswhen noise exposure gets higher. It also alters reactions other than noise annoyance,such as self-reported sleep disturbance attributed to noise”

Some clinical populations experience more severe annoyance reactions, characterised by a complete loss of functional ability in the presence of noise. A large number of psychological disorders (e.g., dyslexia) and injuries (e.g., traumatic brain injury) include noise sensitivity as a debilitating symptom.”

Since Dalton McGuinty and the Liberal party of Ontario has shown a complete lack of concern for disabled individuals, including children with autism, it is up to the parents and physicians familiar with this disorder, to shine the light on the pain and suffering that autistic children could endure if they live too close to Industrial Wind Turbines.  Someone needs to speak for these children who can’t speak for themselves.   Since the Liberal party has no compassion or empathy, we need to find a party that does and ensure that they are the next governing body in this province. — Donna Quixote

Apr 5

From OWR — Bill 55 paves the way for environmental destruction

Tip of the Hat to Ontario Wind Resistance –

Aside from many other reasons to reject the budget, this amendment appears is not on the general public’s radar and is a huge concern.  Bill 55 amends 69 different statutes in its schedules.

Many environmentally significant laws that are administered by the Ministry of Natural Resources are proposed to be amended.  These laws include the Endangered Species Act, the Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act, the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act, the Public Lands Act, the Crown Forest Sustainability Act, and the Niagara Escarpment Planning and Development Act.  Laws such as these are prescribed under the Environmental Bill of Rights, 1993 (EBR).

Industrial wind and solar developers once they get ministerial approval (ie approval from the MOE) if the budget passes, will no longer have to request an exemption permit under the Endangered Species Act or post such notice to the EBR!

There have been 6 exemption permit requests in the last few months by solar and wind developers. Samsung, at this moment, is requesting an exemption permit to rid the area of meadowlarks and bobolinks for its wind power plant. The developers must be delighted!

Read more about Bill 55 at the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario’s site

Read full post at Ontario Wind Resistance

Apr 5

Letter to the Editor by Barb Ashbee

Kemptville EMC – April 5, 2012

Dear Editor:

Rural Ontarians are fully aware of the negative impacts wind turbines and substations are having on families, animals, birds and the environment. This was demonstrated loud and clear in the fall election by voting out many prominent Liberal MPPs including the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of the Environment who governs wind projects.

-There are 81 Ontario municipalities with motions calling to halt further wind power projects until adverse environmental and human health effects have been properly studied by an independent third party.

- Last month, Dalton McGuinty claimed Ontario farmers were his biggest supporters for wind development. In fact The Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA), representing over 38,000 farm members, have called for a suspension of wind projects.

- At the last ROMA meeting at the Royal York in Toronto approximately 60 to 80 municipal members took unprecedented action by standing up and walking out on Dalton McGuinty as he took the microphone to address the municipalities.

- The Canadian Federation of University Women is calling for a moratorium.

- The Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario is calling for a re-evaluation of the program.

- Perth Dairy Producers support the OFA.

- Victoria Haliburton Federation of Agriculture supports the OFA.

- There are First Nations groups protesting the governments overtake of their land for industrial turbines.

- In the legislature on March 8 when Liberal and NDP members teamed up to vote down a motion for a moratorium tabled by a PC candidate, the entire gallery of spectators silently stood and turned their backs to the government.

It was a potent message to our leaders and a first in our legislature.

Full letter here