Health researcher Carmen Krogh was a guest speaker at this year’s ideacity event in Toronto. No matter where in the world industrial-scale wind turbines have been installed, she said, the constellation of symptoms is the same.
This has become a world public health concern.
Take 20 minutes, please, to view this presentation, and ask yourself about the role of the Government of Canada in this, as the wind power industry leads the government down the renewable energy “roadmap” using taxpayer dollars. It is time the government sponsor proper, independent research that really wants to find an answer, not promote the industry on the untested promise of green energy and jobs.
As you may know, the Senate in Australia (which is an elected body) has been conducting a review of wind turbines and problems associated with wind power generation in that country for several months.
Although the final report is not due out until August, the Committee felt it necessary to release an interim report and the “headline recommendations.”
They are very interesting…and refreshing in that here is a body that has listened to both sides, and has concluded there is cause for concern.
Of particular interest are these three paragraphs from the report.
Why are there so many people who live in close proximity to wind turbines complaining of similar physiological and psychological symptoms? As with previous Senate inquiries, this committee has gathered evidence from many submitters attributing symptoms of dizziness, nausea, migraines, high blood pressure, tinnitus, chronic sleep deprivation and depression to the operation of nearby wind turbines. The committee invites the public to read and consider the evidence of people who have experienced these symptoms and who attribute their anxiety and ill health to the operation of turbines.2
1.13 These health affects should not be trivialised or ignored. The committee was particularly distressed by renewable energy advocates, wind farm developers and operators, public officials and academics who publicly derided and sometimes lampooned local residents who were genuinely attempting to make known the adverse health effects they were suffering.
1.14 The committee is aware of people complaining of these impacts who have since left their family home. Some now live a nomadic and uncertain existence. In one case, the now deserted home had been in the family for five generations—since the 1840s. These are not decisions taken lightly. Having left the turbine vicinity, several witnesses noted that the symptoms had faded if not disappeared.3
The Committee quite rightly observed that the decision to leave the family home, and often hundreds of thousands of dollars of investment, to say nothing of farm operations and property, because they HAD TO.
The recommendations listed by the Senate Committee include the need for independent clinical research, and continuous independent monitoring of wind power project noise and infrasound (oh, and we need standards and regulations for infrasound–Ontario doesn’t have these and is dragging its feet on this issue)—the Committee also vindicated the effort and methodology of acoustician Stephen Cooper whose Cape Bridgeport study and finding of unique “sensation” resulting from the turbine emissions.
Several months ago, Ottawa Wind Concerns was subjected to a barrage of insulting Tweets one evening from Australia from a pro-wind power physician, and acolytes of sociologist Simon Chapman. Mr Chapman is mentioned specifically in the Senate Committee report, presumably as one of the disappointing “academics.” (Mr Chapman also functions as a paid consultant for the wind power industry.)
The commentators that evening included one Chris Young of Ottawa who works in the renewable energy field (former Board member of the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association, and former employee of NorSun Energy). Mr Young, at the end of a trail of increasingly insulting posts claiming that people who reported health effects from turbine audible noise and infrasound were essentially nuts, said that Ottawa Wind Concerns, people like us, and specifically me, were “irrelevant.”
Now that we have a government body stating that there is cause for concern, that the wind power industry’s behaviour has been lamentable, and that the way forward is research that is actually intended to find out what’s going on, we ask, who is “irrelevant” now?
Jane Wilson, RN
Chair, Ottawa Wind Concerns
ottawawindconcerns@gmail.com
P.S. The Ontario Sustainable Energy Association is supported significantly by taxpayers. See funding information here.
P.P.S. Mr Young now enjoys the position of being the only person blocked from our Twitter feed.
Wind power developer EDF has announced it intends to bid for 150 megawatts of wind power (50 turbines) on 10,000 acres of land it has optioned near St-Isidore, Ontario. Bids under the 2015 Large Renewable Procurement process are due September 1st. The company is promising 250 jobs “at the height of construction” and a total of four full-time jobs after the project begins. EDF is also promising $150,000 per year in municipal tax revenues and a further $150,000 per year in community benefits. (Taxes on wind turbines are capped at $40,000 per megawatt under the Green Energy Act; municipal benefits in the form of “vibrancy funds are typically less than 1% of the developers’ revenues; full-time jobs for wind “farms” are for highly trained technical staff). This proposal follows announcements by EDP Renewables and Invenergy, both proposing projects in Stormont-Dundas-Glengarry. The Independent Electricity Systems Operator or IESO has said there is no capacity on the grid in Eastern Ontario for these projects, at present. A public Open House is being held June 23rd in St Isidore; see the notice here.
Ken Little (L) and Thomas LoTurco of EDP presenting to South Dundas Council in April: everything is tickety-boo.
EDP Renewables held one of its mandatory community liaison meetings last night, ironically in Dixon’s Corners where so many community meetings had been held by residents opposed to the project.
The wind power project is a great success declared project manager Ken Little. He dispelled concerns about the “charge of lease” issue*, and noise complaints, and insisted that the community is in favour and supportive of the power project.
The Ministry of the Environment representative from the Cornwall district office was also in attendance and admitted that the power developer has yet to file its mandatory noise testing report, as the required higher wind speeds have not been achieved. Therefore the Ministry does not have appropriate data and does not intend to pursue any enforcement action for non-compliance with the regulations.
No one actually measuring noise for compliance
This statement was a shock to those present who have lodged noise complaints (Ottawa Wind Concerns is aware that the first noise complaint was filed two weeks after the turbines began operating). People in at least one residence in Brinston lodged enough complaints that the Ministry conducted a noise audit on site—those results are not available to the public, the MoE representative said.
In the absence of an active community group in South Branch at present, Ottawa Wind Concerns will answer any questions as bet we can: ottawawindconcerns@gmail.com
*Editor’s note: Mr Little is following the wind power lobby group guideline of claiming the charge of lease “issue” (where developers can obtain financing which is then registered on title) is simply a rumour, and is “nobody’s business.” The fact is, the charge of lease potential is yet another characteristic in wind power leases that land owners need to be aware of, and can affect their ability to obtain financing.
SOUTH DUNDAS – The province’s Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) has given South Dundas slim to virtually no chance of having more renewable energy projects.
The Circuit and Station Transmission Availability Tables released Friday by the IESO shows “No Availability” for the five transmission circuits serving the Brinston-area of South Dundas.
The report has likely left plans for two windmill projects in that area of South Dundas twisting in the wind.
EDP Renewables had planned a 50-100 megawatt windmill project northeast of Brinston, which would have been serviced by 40 windmills. Despite repeated calls and emails from Cornwall Newswatch, Project Manager Ken Little has not responded.
Chicago-based Invenergy wanted a slightly smaller project of 50-90 megawatts serviced by 20-25 windmills. The Nine Mile Wind Project would be west of Brinston.
“Invenergy has received the transmission availability report from the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), and we are reviewing the connection options for the Nine Mile Project. (We will) have no further comment until our assessment is complete,” a company spokeswoman said in an email to Cornwall Newswatch.
IESO spokeswoman Alexandra Campbell says, while the table will show no circuit availability, a company can still apply. She says the tables are a snapshot in time and are based on a conservative estimate for power needs. Campbell called them “guidelines.”
“A proponent can still apply for a contract with a project on one of those circuits and, based on the specifics of that project, still may get a contract…and that project may be able to connect,” she said.
Campbell says the IESO availability tables are guidelines and will point out what areas are “a little tighter than others. But no availability doesn’t necessarily mean no projects at all can connect.”
The tables show no availability on the five circuits for Brinston. The area does have the capacity though to handle 550 more megawatts of power. There are many other areas, predominately in southwestern Ontario, where the chances are higher a contract could go ahead.
Certainly this is a factor they (the companies) need to consider. In an area where there may be a lot of availability there’s certainly a much greater likelihood of there not being any barriers with the specific issue of connection (to the circuit)…lower availability is certainly one aspect that needs to be considered by a proponent,” Campbell said.
EDP Renewables and Invenergy are two of 42 companies qualified in Ontario to put in contracts. They have until Sept. 1 to decide whether to put in a request for proposal (RFP).
April 2015: surplus wind power costs Ontario millions
Energy Minister hiding his head over consumer losses due to surplus power, lots of it wind
Electricity exports cost heading for $2 billion in 2015
The continued costs to Ontario’s ratepayers for the oversupply of electricity generation in Ontario continued in April 2015; we exported another 2 terawatts (TWh) of power to our neighbours. April’s exported TWh brings exports for the first four months of 2015 to 8.65 TWh — that’s enough to supply 900,000 average Ontario ratepayers with power for a full year.
Surplus exports represented over 19% of Ontario’s total demand for the month; that figure doesn’t include curtailed wind, steamed-off nuclear or spilled hydro.
The cost (Hourly Ontario Electricity Price + Global Adjustment) to ratepayers for exported power in April was $223 million. We sold it for 1.57 cents per kilowatt hour, thereby generating only $32 million. Ontario’s electricity ratepayers had to eat $191 million in losses that will find their way to the Global Adjustment pot and the “electricity” line on our bills.
As noted in a prior article, the first quarter of the current year generated losses (costs to ratepayers) of $437 million. So now, with the April figures, those costs to date are $608 million or $135 per ratepayer.
We still have eight months left in the year: at the current pace, our bill to support surplus exports will amount to over $400 for the average ratepayer.
Wind power generation for April represented 39% of the exported volume as it produced about 850,000 MWh (megawatt hours) at an average of $123.50 per/MWh, meaning its cost of $104 million represented almost 50% of total export costs.
Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli doesn’t seem to notice our growing surplus*; however, he has directed the IESO to acquire another 500 MW of renewable energy from wind and solar in 2015, and mandated conservation of another 7 TWh by 2020.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not represent Wind Concerns Ontario policy.
Editor’s note: speaking at a wind power information evening in Finch, Ontario, on May 6th, Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Don McCabe said there is no surplus of power in Ontario. This is a lot of lost power and a lot of losses to electricity consumers—including farmers—to deny.
Not the photo the Standard-Freeholder used, of a turbine alone in a field. THIS is reality: a house and turbine near KIncardine, Ont.
U.S.-based Invenergy is trying to persuade South Dundas to reverse its unwilling host resolution and put its stamp of approval on a proposal for more wind turbines for the area.
South Dundas remains a magnet for wind power developers, despite an earlier proclamation the municipality is “not a willing host” for the controversial turbines.
Just on the heels of a presentation made by the township’s only resident turbine developer, EDP Renewables, a second firm wants in on the action. South Dundas council heard last Tuesday from James Murphy and Ryan Ralph, who were representing Invenergy, reputed to be the continent’s sixth-largest green energy entity.
Invenergy is proposing its Nine Mile Project, which would be considerably more ambitious the current South Branch project that is now operating in the Brinston area. It would also spill into North Dundas.
If developed, Nine Mile would produce between 50-90 megawatts/hr. South Branch delivers 30 megawatts, but EDP is hoping to expand its operations in the township.
Invenergy needs council’s blessing in order to arm itself with a best-case argument to get provincial approval as it competes with some 40 other companies. One of the requirements that South Dundas wants projects to satisfy is to show there is a demand for more electricity.
Invenergy has indicated by 2019, more energy will need to be produced in Ontario, reversing a current trend of selling power at loss to other jurisdictions.
Mayor Evonne Delegarde said the new council welcomes new presentations in order to analyze their individual worth.
One of the social spinoffs for hosting a turbine project is the community donations the township receives annually – $1,000 for every megawatt produced, so Nine Mile would provide $50,000 to $90,000 per year for 20 years.
As for her opinion, the mayor said the community investment would not be a factor in view of whether to accept the proposal. Several property owners have already signed up to receive $500,000 in lease payments if the project goes ahead.
NOTE: Ottawa Wind Concerns has learned that a community group opposed to the wind power project may be forming in North Stormont–we will keep you informed.
The provincial government is preparing a new law to make it easier to build and expand hydro corridors, with the Ottawa area a prime target.
Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli told a summit of energy companies in Toronto in early May that he’s working on legislation that’s mostly about adjusting the way Ontario’s main regulator for the industry, the Ontario Energy Board, works once the province sells off a majority share in Hydro One, its main transmission utility.
But part of the new law, according to the text of his speech, will “give cabinet enhanced powers to designate key transmission corridors to expedite their construction.”
Chiarelli’s spokesperson Jennifer Beaudry explained by email that the idea is to let the politicians decide what’s “in the public good” and remove a stage where the energy board makes its own determination about whether a transmission project is really needed. The regulator would still go over costs and decide who should pay what share of them, she said.
A key transmission corridor could be one that brings electricity to a remote First Nations reserve, one needed to power northern mines, or one that’s needed for “enhanced intertie capacity with neighbouring jurisdictions to support clean energy import,” the text of Chiarelli’s speech says.
And that means Ottawa, which is a major transfer point for electricity Ontario buys from Quebec’s hydro dams but where our existing wires are nearly maxed out.
“At present the firm import capability that could be relied on for all hours on the Quebec — Ontario interties is quite restricted due to transmission issues in the Ottawa area,” says a report prepared last fall by the Independent Electricity System Operator, the provincial agency that monitors and forecasts the flow of electricity around Ontario.
Lines that run through Ottawa carry power into Ontario both from northern Quebec and from the big Beauharnois dam near Montreal. Electricity doesn’t travel all that well, so a lot of the energy we use here comes from Quebec, especially in the summer.
A shortage of transmission capacity will be a big deal in the North, where the eventual development of Ring of Fire mines and related industries will take a lot of electricity. It could even affect Toronto, which has a lot of heavy-duty power lines around its outskirts but only a webwork of little ones serving its condo-packed downtown. But it’s here that the clock is really ticking.
Within five years, the agency says, there’ll be no capacity to move electricity from Quebec through Ottawa to the rest of the province unless we build hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of new power lines; all the juice we can suck in, we’ll be using locally. At a minimum, keeping the system functioning means replacing existing lines that run past backyards in Kanata and Orléans with heavier-duty ones, a $325-million project that would only keep the power supply in Ottawa stable, not give us any to spare.
The most ambitious scenario the IESO considered would cost more like $2 billion. It’s a list of things we’d have to do if Ontario wants to make a major deal to buy Quebec electricity in quantity. We’d have to do major work on just about all of Ottawa’s high-voltage lines, but especially on the ones that run through Orléans because they mainly carry electricity from an “intertie” with Quebec at a hydro dam in Masson-Angers to Ontario’s main power grid. It would also mean building a new eight-kilometre line through Kanata, connecting transfer stations at South March and Terry Fox.
As Ontario knows well by now, new electricity projects are rarely popular. Usually, they benefit other people more than those who live nearby — a wind farm is good for the company that runs it and for whoever leases or sells the land, and (arguably) for the province as a whole, but not for the neighbours who have to look at it.
Same thing with a hydro corridor. We need high-voltage wires but nobody has yet found a way to make them pretty. Plus the science is pretty compelling that they don’t pose a health risk, but there’s no convincing some people. There’s really no way that high-tension wires carrying Quebec power past your house in Ottawa’s suburbs toward Toronto are a selling point. Which is why the cabinet will want the authority to shove them down people’s throats.
James Murphy, left, and Ryan Ralph, senior manager of business development for Invenergy, make their presentation to South Dundas council May 19, 2015 for a proposed wind farm west of Brinston. The 20-25 windmill site would be west of the existing EDP Renewables’ South Branch Wind Farm. (Cornwall Newswatch/Bill Kingston)
SOUTH DUNDAS – Another company is looking to cash in on wind energy in the Municipality of South Dundas.
Representatives from Chicago-based Invenergy made a presentation to South Dundas council Tuesday night – a presentation very similar to EDP Renewables’ last month.
Spokesman James Murphy told council they’ve already secured land leases with 30 landowners for a total of 11,000 acres in South Dundas.
The company says it has paid out $500,000 to date for the leases.
“We get asked a lot, well, how big is the project? Is it big, is it small? In general, we think it’s going to be around 50-90 megawatts, using a similar unit on the South Branch (Wind Farm) project….somewhere between 20-25 positions (windmills) on that 11,000 acres,” Murphy told council.
The wind farm would be west of Brinston and south of Irish Headline Road.
Answering a question from Deputy Mayor Jim Locke on where the exact locations of the windmills would be, Murphy said that wouldn’t come until late 2016 if they were successful in their bid this year.
Murphy says they also have a smaller land footprint in North Dundas but, when they asked to make a deputation to the council there, they were refused. North Dundas is also a non-willing host. Instead, a public meeting is being held at a nearby community center.
Murphy also stressed there would be public meetings on the proposed project this summer, which has to be submitted to the government by September.
Much like EDP Renewables, Invenergy would have a community reinvestment fund.
Invenergy and EDP Renewables are both trying to woo support from council is order to score better on a points system for the request for proposal (RFP) process, despite the fact South Dundas committed to being a non-willing host in October 2013.
South Dundas listened but made no commitments Tuesday night.
The Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) is expected to outline the capacity for wind power on the hydro grid in two days (May 22) and, at that point, both companies will have a better idea how big their wind farms will be.
A recent news report stated that South Dundas council was rethinking its position of not supporting a proposed wind power generation project, partly because of the tax revenues that would come to the municipality.
Council need to reads this.
No windfall in tax revenue for Ontario communities hosting wind farms
With a cap on assessments for wind turbines, Ontario municipalities are limited in tax revenues on the multi-million-dollar power projects. Revenues work out to less than 1% of what the developers have in their money bags
Revenues no more than “Chump Change” for municipalities
Wind power developers bringing projects to Ontario’s municipalities offer various inducements to persuade politicians they will benefit from millions of dollars. Like the landowners signing leases for turbines, money is frequently the reason municipal politicians support wind power development and locating projects locally.
In Ontario, local politicians have no real power to support or deny those projects, and also, little ability to generate a real community benefit due to the Green Energy and Green Economy Act (GEA). It doesn’t matter what the capital value of an industrial wind turbine (IWT) is, or what they levy in local realty taxes as the provincial government has set the taxable value! Former Minister of Finance, Dwight Duncan decreed (one year before resigning) IWTs would be assessed by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) at a maximum of $40,000 per megawatt (MW). That translates to tax revenue averaging $1,000/2,000 per MW, based on local industrial mill rates.
My research indicates Ontario has the lowest assessed value per/MW capacity of all provinces.
Ontario:
The 2014 3rd Quarter update from the OPA claimed they had contracted for 5,697 MW of wind capacity. Payment per MW hour for wind generated power averages $123.50/MWh.
Using an average of $1,500 per MW for the OPA-contracted 5,697 MW of wind means Ontario host municipalities will generate about $8.5 million annual realty taxes. (5,697 X $1,500 = $8.5 million)
Those 5,697 MW will produce energy at 30% of their capacity producing cash for the developers of $1.8 billion (5,697 X 30% X 8760 [hours per annum] X $123.50 = $1.8 billion) Eighty percent (80%) of the time the power will be surplus to Ontario’s demand.1. Tax revenues represent less than 1% of developers’ revenue.
Nova Scotia:
Nova Scotia’s legislature set the annual price for their realty taxes at $5,500 per MW “plus a percentage of $5,500.00 equal to the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for Canada at the end of the calendar year ending in the immediately preceding municipal taxation year relative to the Consumer Price Index for Canada at the end of the 2005 calendar year”.
If Nova Scotia had contracted for the 5,697 MW the OPA has in Ontario, realty tax revenues would be in excess of $31 million. (5,697 X $5,500 = $31.3 million)
In Nova Scotia those 5,697 MW of wind turbines operating at 30% of capacity would be paid an an average of $100 MWh and generate $1.5 billion. Tax revenues would represent slightly more than 2% of revenue for the developers.
British Columbia:
For British Columbia realty taxes applicable to farms are applied to wind developments which presumably means assessment of the capital cost (depreciating) of about $1.5 million per MW. Specific information was difficult to locate; however, what I found indicates realty taxes appear to be approximately $14K/MW and the price paid for generation is $105 per/MWh.
Using the limited amount of information available and applying it to the Ontario contracted 5,697 MW of capacity; in BC the tax revenue would be $80 million annually (5,697 X $14K = $80 million) and at $105 per MWh would generate $1.6 billion annually for the developers. Taxes would represent 5% of the revenue generated for the developers.
Alberta:
It was almost impossible to locate assessment values for wind turbines in Alberta except for one reference in a report from the Greengate Power Corporation posted on the University of Calgary site. That report claimed a 300 MW wind development would pay municipal taxes of $5 million annually which indicates a realty tax of about $16K per MW.
Using that information and applying it to Ontario’s 5,697MW of contracted capacity, suggests annual tax revenue for municipalities would be $91 million. In Alberta the wind developers must sell their production via the spot market and in 2013 a BNN article suggested they earned an average of $54.97 per MWh which translates to annual revenue of $820 million for the developers. In Alberta realty taxes would therefore represent 11% of the revenue generated by the developers.
Summary:
With Ontario municipalities receiving so little for hosting industrial wind turbines it is surprising the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) when faced with any kind of opposition would issue a press release that claims: “Right now there are literally thousands of Ontarians participating in the province’s ground-breaking clean energy economy. Communities across this province — from Chatham-Kent to Frontenac Island, Tillsonburg to Niagara — stand to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in direct benefits from wind energy projects.”
MPAC’s 2014 annual report claims they assess and classify “more than five million properties with an estimated total value of $2.2 trillion.”The assessed value of the contracted 5,697 industrial wind turbines at $40K per MW gives them a total value of $228 million or .0001% of total assessed values versus a likely capital cost approaching $8.5 billion, or 4% of MPAC’s total value!
So, Ontario’s wind developers walk away with an estimated $1.8 billion annually and $36 billion over the 20-year term of the contracts, while Ontario’s hosting municipalities have to make do with chump change of $8.5 million annually, and only $170 million over the full terms of those contracts.
Far from enjoying millions in cash windfall, Ontario’s municipalities got stuck with the worst possible deal.
