Recent news reports tell us that many residents of downtown Ottawa are disturbed by the prospect of a 42-storey condo tower in the Preston Street area. “Not in keeping” with the neighbourhood, they claim, and the condo tower would be the tallest building in Ottawa.

Not if the wind power project goes ahead.

The wind turbines specified by Prowind Canada (a subsidiary of Germany-based Prowind GmBH) are 190 meters or 626 feet tall. As power generating machines, they do make noise and produce vibration (infrasound), and they will be lit at night by aviation safety lights.

By comparison, the tallest building in Ottawa-Gatineau is Les Terrasses de la Chaudieres, but the second tallest, and tallest on the Ottawa side of the river is the Place de Ville Tower II at 367 feet or 112 meters. Prominent in the western portion of the city is Minto’s Metropole which towers the neighbourhood at 109 meters or 354 feet. The list of buildings is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Ottawa%E2%80%93Gatineau

In other words, those tall buildings are but little specimens when compared to the industrial-scale wind turbines. Now, imagine too that those turbines will be placed next to a village of single family homes and farms—far too close for such huge structures, and far too close for the environmental noise and infrasound they will produce. (Prowind just announced that the capacity of turbines at its Gunn’s Hill project near Woodstock will be 2.89 megawatts.)

The photos on Prowind’s website depicting the impact of the turbines on the North Gower-Richmond area are misleading and duplicitous. As we have said before, the real view of the turbines from Malakoff Road would not be of some misty distant towers—you would not even be able to SEE the nacelle from that view.

We offer this information at the risk of having the wind power developer claim our objections are based on a dislike for the “look of them” and in the hope that by noting the true size of these machines, people–especially our city-dwelling friends and fellow citizens–will come to understand what is really happening when a wind power project is proposed: it is the invasion of a quiet community by a huge industrial project.

Email us at ottawawindconcerns@gmail.com