Editor’s Note: While the Northern Hoot does not typically publish press releases the following release from Save Ontario’s Algoma Region executive member, Gillan Richards, is an informative read. Ms. Richards has been an outspoken advocate for the conservation of the Algoma District. More so the position she has taken on industrial wind turbines has been motivated by facts which are often undisclosed by the government and wind companies.
“The Liberal government got it into their heads to use renewable energy to bolster a sagging economy and the wind companies that get to build these farms become very rich. Long-term jobs are negligible once construction is over with only one or two people are needed to look after the project. And the taxpayer is left paying the bill. The government and these companies only puts one side of the story out there and the media buys it. The only way we can respond is by sending our own letters,” remarked Richard’s during an interview in July 2014 with the Northern Hoot.
You can read Richard’s response below to an article recently published by another media outlet last week.
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For Immediate Release, December 31, 2014
The Goulais Wind Project: Another Side to the Story
From Save Ontario’s Algoma Region (SOAR)
What Russ Hilderley’s article, “A Goulais project set to harness Superior’s winds,” Friday, December 26, 2014 DOESN’T TELL YOU! The writer fails to point out the other side of the story about this project.
Parker Gallant, Wind Concerns Ontario Vice-President, retired banker, does the math for the Goulais project:
Those 11 turbines will produce power at about 30% of their rated capacity meaning they will generate about 66,000 megawatt hours (MWh) annually. To claim they will serve the needs of 12,000 households is to claim they will operate at 53% of capacity. There is not one wind turbine project operating in Canada that produces at that level and we should not expect this one to either.
Who will really benefit from this project?
The project will receive a price of $142.50 per MWh meaning income to the project owners of $9.4 million annually and $188 million over the life of the 20 year contract operating at the 29/30% of capacity which is the norm.
The project owners will be paid to generate power for 80% of the time it is not needed by Ontario electricity customers. That surplus power will be sold to our US neighbours for the average wholesale price and Ontario’s ratepayers will pay the difference. The average sale price of our exported electricity in October was about $7.00 per MWh meaning a potential cost to ratepayers of $135.00 per MWh for the future production of this project. The only beneficiaries of this project are the owners who will be paid by Ontario’s ratepayers.
The people of Algoma will also get an environmental bill.
- The 11 Goulais turbines will kill on average 10/20 birds and bats per turbine annually including many on the “species at risk” list.
- The land on the Goulais highlands will have 400 tons of concrete pads per turbine that will not be removed with the turbines when they reach their end of life.
- In the unlikely but possible event the turbines catch fire through a lightning strike or an electrical short within their power system they may cause fires destroying forest and further habitat and endanger human life and property.
- Each 51 storey Goulais wind tower, 168 metres from base to blade tip, plus the 126 Prince turbines will dominate “that spectacular,” “naturally gifted” landscape which is how the signage of the Superior Coastal Highlands Tourism Association and the City of Sault Ste. Marie welcomes tourists to Algoma.
Wind turbines produce an intermittent and unreliable form of electricity. The question is: Why are we paying for something that will provide power when we don’t need it but sit idle when we do?
In January, 2014, an appeal against the decision of the Minister of the Environment to allow the construction of the Goulais Wind Project was dismissed. Despite a protest by concerned citizens from St. Joseph Island, Sault Ste. Marie, Heyden, Island Lake, Goulais River and Montreal River the Environmental Review Tribunal ruled the project could proceed.
The protesting citizens found the appeal process to be very narrow as it was restricted only to arguments that proved serious harm to human health and/or serious and irreversible harm to the environment, thereby totally discounting other concerns including harm to Algoma’s spectacular landscape, a chief tourist attraction, and cost to the consumer.
To date no appeal of an industrial wind project has been successful in Ontario except the Ostrander Point appeal where it was found that the Blanding’s turtle would be endangered by the project. The wind developer contested that ruling.
Submitted by Gillan Richards, Executive Member
Save Ontario’s Algoma Region (SOAR)
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Published earlier today Wind Spinners in response to the same article presents a thorough breakdown of the numbers by Lake Superior Action Research member, George Browne.
