Skip to content

Archive for November 3rd, 2012

Nov 3

Dalton's legacy

An ill wind for McGuinty

Lorrie Goldstein — Toronto Sun — November 3, 2012

One of the worst things the Dalton McGuinty government did in its disastrous dash into green energy was to ride roughshod over the health complaints of rural Ontarians regarding industrial wind turbines.

Basically McGuinty dismissed them as NIMBYS.

That is, people who weren’t really suffering any ill health effects from wind turbines other than “Not In My Back Yard Syndrome” — NIMBYism for short.

The Liberal government cited studies — many from the wind industry itself — claiming no adverse health effects from wind turbines, and a report by Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Arlene King, concluding there were no “direct links” between wind turbines and ill health.

But wind farm opponents are now armed with a new weapon — a controlled, peer-reviewed, scientific study published in the current issue of the periodical Noise and Health which for the first time links industrial wind turbine noise and vibration to serious health problems. Read more

Nov 3

Area the size of 4 mega-quarries consumed for turbines

Reblogged from Project Locations & Maps of Turbine Farms in Ontario:

Soupstock at Woodbine Park in Toronto...  a sequel to last year’s protest, Foodstock

An estimated 40,000 people were served bowls of soup in Toronto during a mega-quarry protest, Sunday. TEB

the project would directly affect an estimated 2,300 acres of farmland Torontoist

An additional 10,000 acres of vegetation are being cleared to install wind turbines in Ontario (details below). This number doesn't include the thousands of acres of transformers & substations.

Read more… 163 more words

Nov 3

4949741-big-pile-of-money-over-blue-background

Removing Big Wind’s “Training Wheels”

Tip of the hat to Master Resource

David E. Dismukes, Ph.D. — American Energy Alliance — Louisiana State University

The Case for Ending the Federal Production Tax Credit

1 The federal wind Production Tax Credit (“PTC”), first enacted in 1992 to “jump start” a nascent, but promising industry,2 provides wind producers with a subsidy of $22 per megawatt hour of electricity generated.3 The PTC has been extended seven times,4 but is scheduled to expire under current law on December 31, 2012. Extension of the federal wind PTC has become the “stalking horse” in the debate on government’s role in picking energy “winners and losers.” Although wind advocates proffer several internally inconsistent rationales5 for continuing the federal wind PTC, a closer examination of compelling facts and data indicates these purported justifications are not about wind’s continued viability without the PTC. Rather, the wind industry’s arguments supporting a continuation of the federal wind PTC simply represent a classic case of “rent seeking” by an established industry seeking to maintain profits through a generous tax subsidy.

(To read full report, click here)

Nov 3

4-flag-of-scotland
1 Comment

Scotland — Wind turbines less efficient than claimed

News24 — November 3, 2012

The use of coal and nuclear energy to drive power stations has attracted more and more dissension in the power generating industry.  The obvious solution which usually arises from discussion in the field is ”Use wind power ”The use of wind power may have its advantages but, too, its disadvantages. The obvious disadvantage is lack of wind and a second important disadvantage is the poor efficiency to be had from Wind turbines and on wind farms. People seldom equate efficiency with the kinetic energy of the wind.

A study was carried out to determine the wind energy generated by dozens of wind farms, the majority which are in Scotland .between November 2009 and 2010.  Overall they actually ran at 22% of capacity.It is commonly expected that the wind farm runs at 33% capacity over a period of a year.

BETZ  LAW      According to BETZ LAW, No turbine can capture more than 59,3%Of the kinetic energy of the wind.  The factor 16/27 (0,593)  Is known as Betz’s coefficient. Practical utility scale wind turbines achieve at peak 75% To 80% of the Betz limit.  The Betz limit places an upper boundary on the annual limit that can be extracted at a site.

(To continue reading, click here)

Nov 3

_60107608_001203411-1

Ontario playwright to tackle wind power debate — looking for local input

Daniel R. Pearce — Simcoe Reformer — November 1, 2012

One of the hottest, most controversial, most divisive issues to hit rural Ontario in many years — wind turbines — will get its own play.

It’s a couple of years away from hitting the boards and for now is in the development stage.

But accomplished playwright Leanna Brodie is busy doing research across the province for the piece she will eventually write in a joint project among three rural summer theatres in Ontario, including Lighthouse Theatre in Port Dover, that are smack in the middle of this broiling controversy.

Brodie is in the process of interviewing everybody: pro-wind people, anti-wind people, wind industry people, people trying to rent their land out for turbines, people trying to stop turbines from going up next to them, politicians stuck in the middle of everything, and anyone with an opinion on the topic.

Brodie says she is engaging in what is called “documentary theatre.” It can take many forms, like the show American writer Anna Deavere Smith did about the Rodney King riots in which she interviewed more than 200 people and then played all the parts, including Charlton Heston and King’s aunt.

The form this play will take is undetermined at this point and will depend on what Brodie finds and how she can adapt it to the personality of the three theatres she is writing for. “You respond to the material in front of you as a sculptor responds to the stone in front of them,” Brodie explains.

So far, she has talked to people from all sides of this debate and while they have differing and conflicting points of view, they all have one thing in common: they are furiously angry and willing to express it.

…..

Brodie, who is working under both a Canada Council and Arts Council of Ontario grants, was in Norfolk County in September and started talking to people then. She will be back in Port Dover next summer for about four months to do more research.

Brodie says she wants to talk to as many people as possible and welcomes anyone with any experience or opinion on the matter to contact her. She can be reached at: leannabrodie@gmail.com.

(To read full article with further details, click here)

Nov 3

wind-turbine-and-house1

Dalton McGuinty defends wind farm development

Randy Richmond — London Free Press — November 2, 2012

As dozens of anti-wind turbine protesters marched outside, Premier Dalton McGuinty reiterated in London his government’s commitment to the controversial plan to dot Ontario’s landscape with the turbines.

“I want to convey I respect the right of these individuals to express their concerns,” McGuinty said Friday. “We are always careful to listen to what they have to say.”

But health studies and property assessment studies show ill effects to neither people or property because of turbines, he said.

“One of the most common refrains that I received from the medical community during my 22 years in politics . . . (is) when are you going to shut down coal, it’s making our kids sick,” he said.

“So we’re making a choice. We think it’s a healthy choice.”

(To continue reading, click here)

Nov 3

Keep protesting, it really does work

Chris Fell — Simcoe.com — November 2, 2012

“What can we do?”
That was the question from one local resident at the end of a meeting that opponents of industrial wind turbines invading our rural landscape held in Maxwell last week.

The person who asked the question wanted to know what everyday people could do to continue to protest against industrial turbines destroying rural areas. They wanted to know how they could defeat the McGuinty government’s draconian Green Energy Act. They wanted to know how to protect their homes, their investments and the homes and investments of their neighbours and friends.

What can they do?  My answer: exactly what they are currently doing. It’s working!

My advice to all those people who don’t want to see the rural countryside destroyed by an invasion of wind turbines that we don’t need is this: keep doing what you’re doing now.

Dalton McGuinty’s resignation as Premier of Ontario is a direct result of wind turbine protests (among other things). This turned out to be completely true. Liberal MPPs John Wilkinson and Carol Mitchell both lost their rural seats – largely due the anger about the government’s energy policies. At the end of the election the Liberals fell one seat short of a majority. Those two seats would have made the difference.

(To continue reading, click here)