Tag Archives: Ottawa wind concerns

City environment committee to hear motion tomorrow on wind turbines on public land

16 Monday May 2022

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Motion proposes city-developed renewable energy projects including wind on public land. That differs completely from the reassurances given to citizens by rural councillors who previously said there were no such plans

The City of Ottawa’s climate change illustration. Wind turbines coming soon on public land near you?

May 16, 2022

A motion to direct staff to create a network for a distributed energy framework on public-owned land will be heard by the Ottawa Environmental Protection Committee.

The motion was developed by Bay Ward Councillor Teresa Kavanagh and will be presented by Committee member and Capital Ward Councillor Shawn Menard.

The portion referring to wind power reads as follows:

MOTION: CITY RENEWABLE ENERGY

3. Approve that, contingent on sufficient resources, Council direct staff to report back to the Standing Committee on Environmental Protection, Water and Waste Management by Q4 2023 with: 

 a) An evaluation of existing solar PV systems and impact to facilities installed at City owned facilities 

b) A distributed energy resource framework for city-owned

facilities and land including: 

 i. Renewable energy generation (solar and wind) 

ii. Energy storage 

 ii. [sic] Demand response 

 iv. Potential policies to install distributed energy resources at City facilities or on City land 

c) Staff and funding implications to implement and support the distributed energy resource framework

Ottawa Wind Concerns chair Jane Wilson filed a comment to be heard by the Committee with the following statements:

With respect, the content of this motion seems to be in complete disagreement with statements made by councillors over the last year to the effect that the City is not proposing to acquire, propose or develop any wind power facilities.

Once again, there seems to be no discussion whatsoever of requiring any cost-benefit or impact analysis for grid-scale wind power. As an intermittent, weather-dependent source of power that requires substantial subsidies, grid-scale wind power would not offer a stable, reliable source of affordable power for the City and as such will not be helpful in support of electrification efforts or in the path to Net Zero.

If I may, I refer to Councillor Moffatt’s message in The Manotick Messenger published on November 5, 2021:

What I can say with certainty is that the City of Ottawa is not developing wind power, nor are we working toward such an effort or finding locations where wind power development could occur…. Finally, just to reiterate, there are no planned industrial wind turbines within the boundaries of the City of Ottawa at this time.

Ottawa’s rural residents would be asked to bear the most significant burden of any negative environmental impacts. If they took reassurance from comments such as those by Councillor Moffatt above that there would be at least consultation, they will be betrayed by this motion to be presented tomorrow.

We ask that this be considered in discussion of this motion.

The meeting will be held at 0930 May 17, 2022. The general public may view the meeting on the City’s YouTube channel.

The Agenda for the committee meeting may be found here: https://app05.ottawa.ca/sirepub/agendaminutes/english.aspx

Ottawa renewable energy future “predominately wind and solar” says city staff

10 Thursday Mar 2022

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Photo of Nation Rise turbines: equal to 60-storey office towers. Wind turbines are an industrial use of the land

March 10, 2022

Last November, after STOP THE OTTAWA WIND TURBINES signs dotted rural Ottawa from Navan to Dunrobin, and south to North Gower and Manotick, Ward 21 councillor Scott Moffatt said that Ottawa was not planning industrial-scale wind turbines. He also suggested in one of his podcasts that the signs, put up by Ottawa Wind Concerns and Carleton Landowners,were just frightening people.

Where did the idea come from? The city’s Energy Evolution document contains a model for 3,200 megawatts of renewable power generation, which could mean 710 wind turbines. The document was passed by Council in the fall of 2020 to very little fanfare.

As to a coming rush of huge, noisy wind turbines, Mr. Moffatt wrote in the Manotick Messenger on November 5: “That could not be farther from the truth.”

He went on to say that wind turbines built in other areas would count toward Ottawa’s Net Zero goal. Councillors El-Chantiry and Darouze agreed, stating during the last meeting for the City’s Official Plan that people were confused about wind turbines.

The fact is, there is a conflict between what City staff are saying, and councillors’ public statements.

On March 7, a hearing was held before the Ontario Energy Board, with regard to the City of Ottawa objecting to a proposal by Enbridge Gas to replace a pipeline for natural gas along St. Laurent Blvd in order to serve its customers.

The City’s objection, they say, is based on the idea that we won’t need natural gas in the coming years because we will rely on power from renewable sources instead.

In answering a question from Energy Probe at the hearing as to whether and where wind turbines might go, Climate Change manager Mike Fletcher answered:

“The city’s plan does not propose to install 710 large scale wind turbines in the City of Ottawa.”

But…

“Any Ottawa wind turbines of any size that were built would be located in appropriately zoned areas of community respecting required setbacks.”

So, no, or…yes?

Mr. Fletcher then went on to say that the city has consulted with a planner with regard to setbacks to determine siting for wind turbines. From the transcript, Mr. Fletcher said:

So a land use planner was involved in looking at this issue and considered guidance on setbacks and a setback is — as I recall it being described, a setback is the distance from mostly from buildings where people are living or working.

And there are zoning considerations as to where — where turbines could be located. So prime agricultural land would not be a non-associated use for a wind turbine.

So, the city is involved in developing setbacks “as to where turbines could be located”. That’s reasonable; it is good to be prepared, but are they actually planning for wind power?

Later, answering a question put from Enbridge Gas’ lawyer, Mr. Fletcher confirmed the sources of renewable energy:

[Enbridge Gas lawyer] And the next line is 4.3 gigawatts of other planned renewable capacity. And is that roughly the accurate figure?

MR. FLETCHER: That’s correct.

MR. ELSON: And I understand that that renewable capacity includes some wind and some solar?

MR. FLETCHER: Well, it is predominantly those two, actually.

Again, we ask the City of Ottawa to be transparent with the residents of our rural communities.

It is worth noting that counsel for the parties objecting to the pipeline replacement would not allow the city staff to answer a more definitive question on wind turbines:

ENERGY PROBE: I am trying to understand what will be considered. It is appropriate uses — okay. So if the farm is not using power from the wind turbine, then the turbine cannot be located there. I asked couldn’t it be located in a farm that is not in that category, but is — in fact there is opposition from the farmer?

[COUNSEL FOR OBJECTORS]: We are objecting to the question; we will not answer it. I am instructing the witness not to answer it.

Everyone wants the best for our environment, and to take action that will be effective against climate change, but we also know that industrial-scale wind turbines are inefficient and unreliable, and cannot be used as baseload power.

Moreover, they use up a lot of land and are considered a “low-density” power source.

Because of the subsidies required, electricity bills will increase as will “energy poverty.” That will harm people and businesses. Industrial-scale wind turbines emit noise which can be pollution at certain levels; stringent setbacks are required to protect health and safety. Ontario’s current setbacks are only 550 meters and have not been changed since 2009.

Is this the right choice for Ottawa?

People deserve to know what the city is planning.

ottawawindconcerns@gmail.com


Ottawa Wind Concerns is an incorporated, not-for-profit group, with a membership list of several hundred residents of rural Ottawa communities and other stakeholders. We are a community group member of the Wind Concerns Ontario coalition.



City documents still say YES to wind turbines

12 Wednesday Jan 2022

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The Ottawa Energy Evolution strategy official banner: with turbines. [Source: City of Ottawa]

January 12, 2022

Although Ottawa City councillors are saying that the City is not planning wind turbines, is not looking for locations to site turbines, and is not talking to developers, a look at various City documents would persuade you otherwise.

For example, several illustrations that are used for City newsletters and pages on its website clearly depict wind turbines as does, for example, the graphic that accompanies the Energy Evolution strategy document (see above).

And then there is the little matter of the Official Plan Open House virtual presentation held back in June last year in which Manager of Planning Policy Alain Miguelez declared that Ottawa was going to be incorporating renewable energy including wind turbines which would be “directed” he said to Ottawa’s rural areas.

When a citizen participant voiced concern at that event, he responded, “The energy [we need] has to come from somewhere.”

Somewhere indeed.

Almost a year ago, a City staff manager wrote to the Ontario Energy Board as followup to consultation on Distributed Energy Resources (DER) and objected to the fact that the OEB consultant had not mentioned wind power.

“The DER mandate should include all forms of zero-emission DER’s [sic] including wind and hydropower. The ICF paper only discussed solar and battery storage,” Mike Fletcher, Project Manager Climate Change and Resiliency wrote in his letter of February 21, 2021.

“Ottawa has vast rural areas and Energy Evolution requires that we consider wind and hydropower opportunities to meet our renewable energy generation targets,” he said. (Note he said targets, not “models” as is now being claimed.)

So, which is it? Ottawa is not at all considering unreliable, intermittent wind power—which is completely inappropriate in low-wind Eastern Ontario as evidenced by recent poor performance during a cold snap—or, wind power is a key component in the City’s renewable energy plans?

The citizens of Ottawa’s rural areas deserve to know.

ottawawindconcerns@gmail.com

Ottawa Official Plan amendment now protects prime farm land

01 Monday Nov 2021

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farmnotfarm

Earlier draft failed to include statement on protecting prime farmland from industrial uses like wind turbines

November 1,1021

Ottawa City Council approved the draft Official Plan last week, on October 27th, and included a new paragraph relevant to wind power development in the rural areas of the City.

Ward 21 Councillor Scott Moffatt acknowledged last week in his constituent newsletter that the change had been made. The new paragraph in Section 4.11 of the Official Plan reads:

“6)  Large-scale provincially regulated wind turbines are not permitted on lands designated Agricultural Resource Area.  This policy does not apply to small-scale wind generation associated with a permitted principal use.”

Ottawa Wind Concerns (OWC) noted previously that there appeared to be no express intent to protect prime agricultural land in the Plan, dealing with “renewable energy facilities” which would include large-scale wind power. The community group had consulted a municipal law specialist lawyer who confirmed the group’s concern.

OWC filed a 30-page submission to the Joint Planning and Agricultural Affairs Committee, of which Councillor Moffatt was Co-chair, in advance of the Official Plan being submitted to Council. A motion requested that protection of prime agricultural land be expressed in the Plan (as is directed by Ontario’s Provincial Policy Statement).

When Councillor Moffatt put forward the new paragraph at the Joint Committee meeting reviewing the Official Plan, other councillors said they had had many calls and emails about wind turbines, and welcomed the new addition.

“This is an important step forward,” says Jane Wilson, chair of Ottawa Wind Concerns. “The previous version of Ottawa’s Official Plan stated that large-scale wind turbines could go in Ottawa’s rural areas, including our best farm land. Power generation from wind is an industrial land use, and not appropriate for valuable food-producing land.”

But it’s not the end of the fight for Ottawa’s rural communities.

“Turbines or wind power generators are not an appropriate land use near homes, either,” Wilson said. “That will be addressed next.”

The community group has asked specifically that the Plan include a requirement that any form of renewable energy generation undergo a full cost-benefit and impact analysis. That was not included in the addition to the Official Plan but will be important in the development of zoning bylaws, Wilson said.

Councillor Moffatt claimed in his newsletter that

“… there are no planned industrial wind turbines within the boundaries of the City of Ottawa at this time.”

In the Ottawa climate action strategy focused on energy use, however, there is a list of 20 projects to be worked on before 2025—Table 7 in the document states that the City must install 20 megawatts of wind as well as new hydro, solar, and electricity storage.

Also in the document is a statement that the energy “model” should include 3,218 megawatts of wind power as part of “minimum results” to achieve Net Zero by 2050.

ottawawindconcerns@gmail.com

 
 

Changes to Ottawa Official Plan to be presented today

29 Wednesday Sep 2021

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September 29, 2021

Wind turbines are an industrial use of the land, says Ottawa Wind Concerns

The City of Ottawa’s planning department will present the changes to Ottawa’s new Official Plan at 6:30 p.m. today, in a virtual presentation.

At issue for rural residents is Section 4.11 which allows for “renewable energy facilities” in “agricultural resource areas.”

In an earlier draft, the renewable energy facilities were described as “Large-scale wind” and solar, and the placement included “prime agricultural land.”

The Current draft reads:

Renewable Energy Generation

3) Renewable energy generation facilities that are subject to Provincial approvals will be permitted as a principal use within the following designations:

a) Rural Countryside;

b) Greenbelt Rural and Greenbelt Facility; and

c) Natural Environment Area sub-designation, subject to the policies of Subsection 7 .3.

4) Renewable energy generation facilities that are subject to provincial approvals and are subordinate to a principal use will be permitted within the following designations:

a) Agricultural Resource Area, only as an on-farm diversified use; and

b) Rural Industrial and Logistics.

5) The following considerations will be used to establish zoning by-law provisions for such renewable energy generation facilities:

a) Limiting nuisance impacts. such as through siting and screening requirements;

b) Limiting impacts on significant natural heritage features and agricultural resource area lands; and

c) The ability to access the electricity transmission network and arterial roadways.

You must register to attend the event; you may also submit a question or comment in advance. Go to the City of Ottawa Engage site here: The New Official Plan | Engage Ottawa

Ottawa Wind Concerns has submitted several comments related to the apparent acceptance of industrial-scale or grid-scale wind power projects as an “on-farm diversified use.” Wind turbines are an industrial use of the land and not related to agriculture as is required in Ontario’s Provincial Policy Statement.

While City staff have denied that there will be wind turbines in Ottawa’s rural areas, the statements in the Official Plan are clear, as were statements made by the Manager of Planning Policy as a presentation in June. In the city’s Energy Evolution document, it is stated that a “project metric” is to have 20 megawatts of wind power installed by 2025. (See the link below for the Energy Evolution strategy.)

ottawawindconcerns@gmail.com

energy-transition-report-1Download

Boom in home generator sales a sign of the times

23 Thursday Sep 2021

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Reliable: what’s not to like?

September 24, 2021

One of the hottest stocks these days is a company called Generac, which makes whole-home power generators, fueled by natural gas.

After the power failures in Texas and the current crisis in the UK (the latter a desperate situation due to poor energy planning and reliance on wind power), people are worried about the reliability of the power grid.

It’s happening here too and will escalate if cities like Ottawa engage in planning based on intermittent “unreliables” like wind and solar.

Here’s a comment from one of our readers, a long-time experienced power worker:

Breaking news!!!!
I just got off the phone with another contractor from Rockland Ontario asking me to help them get caught up with residential generator installs. Most new construction includes a gas fired backup generator along with an 80 amp electric vehicle charging plug legislated by government code.
Yup, the same people that are discussing phasing out gas fired generation.
Oh, and by the way, for anyone interested, the 3 baseload gas plants that do operate daily are right across the river from Detroit and are privately owned by international consortiums supplying industrial operations that employ thousands.
Most of the other gas fired electrical generating stations are on standby as backup to the Ontario windfarms which drop out of production many times a day, except for the Milton station which provides peaking power usually twice a day for the local industries.
Get rid of that one, no big deal, BUT, you get rid of more Ontario industries and you get rid of more Ontario jobs.
Move in Industrial Wind Turbines and move out industry, hey, it has been proven, the data is everywhere, Ontario windmills don’t work plus they are built using gas fired and coal fired power generation, just not in Ontario.
Lucky for us China has gone in the opposite direction.
Ok, enough new old news for today, gotta go hook up another generator.

Stan the power man

ottawawindconcerns@gmail.com

Renewable energy proponent ignores grid realities

30 Monday Aug 2021

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Photo: D. Larsen for Wind Concerns Ontario. Home inside Nation Rise power project, south of Ottawa

August 30, 2021

The founder of the Ottawa Renewable Energy Cooperative (OREC) has written a letter to the Globe and Mail calling for an entire grid of renewable energy, such as wind and solar, to replace the current system. An excerpt from the letter by Dick Bakker follows.

The traditional, unidirectional electricity system from big central generation sites, with top-down control, hopefully will be replaced with a new grid of distributed renewable generation, decarbonised and locally controlled. New entrants will bring the advanced technology that the traditional utilities resist and introduce local capital to address community level opportunities.

The regulators, pension funds and unions that have benefited from the past century or more of centralised planning must adapt, as their traditional solutions are simply too expensive and unreliable. Distributed renewables, with battery storage, optimized for the distribution network, and integrated with demand response are simply cheaper and more resilient.

Massive changes are coming to our electricity system; hopefully Canada can leap ahead of where we are today, by localizing most of the benefits.

The problem is, wind power for one is not cheap* and it is certainly not “reliable” as our experiences during the recent heat wave indicate. Ontario went more than eight days with barely a whisper of wind, yet we experienced peak demand periods. And that’s typical of wind power in Ontario: it comes during low demand periods of spring and fall.

As to “local” benefits, Mr. Bakker told participants in an online regional update meeting held by the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) last January, that anyone objecting to large-scale wind turbines was a “NIMBY”. They have some valid objections he said but in the main, opposition is “a knee-jerk reaction to industrialization.”

Industrialization.

He doesn’t plan to take into account any environmental or financial concerns Ottawa’s rural residents might have. His knee-jerk NIMBY response was in fact an answer to our question about the need for cost-benefit and impact analysis. He doesn’t want that. He won’t care if the people living in Kars, Osgoode, Carp, Dunrobin, KInburn or North Gower have concerns about noise, harm to wildlife, and impacts on our aquifer.

But the prime problem with this letter is that Mr. Bakker’s views ignore the reality of the electricity grid. Baseload power is needed, and wind and solar cannot do that, not can they replace anything. Wind did not replace coal in Ontario; nuclear and natural gas did.

The one word Mr. Bakker will not say is “nuclear” despite the fact that clean, efficient, reliable nuclear is a real answer to the Net Zero goal. Ontario’s power workers recently said, you can’t get to Net Zero without it.

Facts are simply beside the point for those pushing large-scale renewables.

*While wind power developers’ trade association the Canadian Renewable Energy Association or CanREA claims wind power is now inexpensive, they do not present truly levelized costing. Moreover, Eastern ONtario is a low wind resource area. Ottawa’s Pathway Study of Wind Power in Ottawa (2017) acknowledges that there will have to be financial incentives to lure wind power developers to the area.

OttawaWindConcerns@gmail.com

Ottawa’s Energy Evolution plan trashes city Healthy Environments policy

22 Thursday Jul 2021

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Industrializing rural areas and causing division among neighbours doesn’t make for a healthy, happy place [Photo Dorothea Larsen]

July 22, 2021

The City of Ottawa’s public health department has spent time putting together ideas for a healthy “built environment” which broadly includes where people live, work, and go to school, as well as areas in which “food systems” operate. The City has laid out characteristics that are important to a “healthy” built environment:

  • Promote being active, eating healthy and other healthy habits;
  • Encourage social connectedness;
  • Prevent injuries and promote safety;
  • Improve air, water and soil quality;
  • Provide access to natural and green spaces;
  • Ensure all members of the community have good opportunities to be healthy regardless of their age, income level, gender, ethnic background, or any other social or economic reasons.

However, there is a glitch.

The City’s Energy Evolution document, which calls for 20 megawatts of wind turbines (five or six 60-storey towers that are power generators) by 2025, 200 megawatts sometime thereafter, and a massive 3,200 megawatts (more than 700 industrial wind turbines) by 2050.

In a presentation on June 22nd, City planning staff confirmed that these renewable energy projects would be “directed” to Ottawa’s rural communities. Of course: these structures are so huge and problematic, it is impossible to locate them in the urban area, so rural citizens will get them.

Here’s the problem:

Wind turbine siting depends mostly on finding willing landowners (Eastern Ontario is a poor wind resource, so siting is not dependent on where there is more wind) which means the landowners who choose to allow them on their land are sacrificing their neighbours’ quiet enjoyment of their property—that doe not aid “social connectedness.”

There are safety concerns due to turbine blade failures, ice throw and fires; plus, the noise emissions are linked to stress or distress and can indirectly result in adverse health effects.

Next, turbines do not improve the quality of the air, water and soil: in North Kent Ontario, wind turbine construction and operation has been linked to water well failures. This is currently under a formal public health investigation. And, noise is a form of pollution.

Green spaces? Forget it: wind turbines are an industrial use of the land.

Last, wind turbines do not ensure health and equality; there will be dramatic stress as a result of the urban-rural divide, as quite rural communities will suddenly have huge industrial power generators forced on them.

So, out of six points needed for a healthy environment, the City’s plan to “direct” wind turbines to the rural communities (“That energy has to come from somewhere,” planning manager Alain Miguelez said in the June 22 presentation) violates five of them.

This plan should not even start without a cost-benefit analysis, impact analysis, public consultation and the finalization of protective zoning bylaws to regulate noise and setbacks between wind turbines and houses.

Now.

Read the Energy Evolution document here.

energy-transition-reportDownload

ottawawindconcerns@gmail.com

NOT a NO: Ottawa city staff respond on wind turbines

14 Wednesday Jul 2021

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City not procuring wind power directly, but open to developers [Photo Dorothea Larsen, turbines in North Stormont]

July 14, 2021

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Ottawa City staff have responded to queries about whether the City is planning wind turbines in the rural areas. Here is the response from a manager in the Climate Change and Resiliency Section.

Key point: the City of Ottawa is not directly procuring wind turbines BUT they are looking at where the turbines could go when developers come forward with proposals. That is a YES.

Response:

The City of Ottawa is not planning and does not have any intention of developing or installing large scale wind or solar renewable energy generation projects.

My team is responsible for developing and coordinating strategic policies, programs and plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build resiliency to climate change in Ottawa.   As part of this work, my team leads the Climate Change Master Plan and is supporting the development of the new Official Plan.  Below is background information about both relate to wind projects.

 

Climate Change Master Plan

 

The City’s Climate Change Master Plan provides Ottawa’s overarching framework to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and respond to the current and future effects of climate change.  As part of the plan, City Council aims to reduce GHG emission 100% by 2050. Energy Evolution is the action plan for how Ottawa will meet those targets.  It modelled 39 actions and their relative GHG emissions reductions to achieve the targets and identifies 20 priority projects* to accelerate action and investment over the next five years (2020 – 2025).  Both the Climate Change Master Plan and Energy Evolution identify embedding climate considerations in the new Official Plan as a priority project.

 

On January 1, 2019, the Green Energy Act was repealed which restored municipal authority over the siting of new renewable energy generation projects through amendments to the Planning Act. Residential and agricultural concerns about the siting of projects are now expected to be addressed through local municipal approvals. The current Official Plan and Zoning By-law are silent on renewable energy generation (REG).

 

Official Plan

 

The Draft Official Plan was released in November 2020 included REG as a Generally Permitted Use, but it did not specify where REG was permitted.  Through public consultation, staff received feedback that renewable energy generation policies in the Official Plan should align with Energy Evolution.

 

Since the Draft Official Plan was released in November 2020, staff has worked to add policies to direct where large-scale renewable energy generation projects can be located in the rural area.  The following describes the revisions:

 

The proposed policies direct where large-scale renewable energy generation projects as well as bio-energy projects are to be located in the rural area. It should be noted that such projects would also require a Renewable Energy Approval from the province.

The proposed policies are consistent with the Provincial Policy Statement for renewable energy generation in prime agricultural areas.

The proposed policies provide direction to establish zoning by-law provisions for renewable energy generation facilities to address nuisance impacts such as noise and shadowing. Public and stakeholder consultation will be undertaken on any new proposed zoning provisions following Council adoption of the Official Plan.

 

The revisions to the new Official Plan will be posted on the Official Plan webpage later this month.  When it is released, additional detail will be provided about how to make public delegations at the statutory public meeting expected later this summer.

 

Upon approval of the new Official Plan, large scale projects that are initiated by energy developers would still require approval by the Province (i.e. under the Renewable Energy Approval or Environmental Activity Site Registry process). However, there is currently no provincial policy or procurement mechanism that allows renewable electricity to be sold to the grid (i.e., there is no immediate opportunity for large scale wind or solar development in Ottawa). Staff are currently undertaking a preliminary assessment of renewable energy generation potential within the rural areas identified in the new Official Plan to better understand how the potential compares to the Energy Evolution model requirements.  This study is expected to be complete this summer.

………………..

So City staff are trying to deflect interest in and concern about high-impact wind power generation in our rural communities with a lot of words about the Official Plan.

The people of Ottawa generally and especially rural residents need to be able to discuss these proposals NOW. We also need the protective zoning bylaws NOW—if the City waits until proposals are made, they will be unable to enact anything, or the power developers can take legal action.

*One of the 20 projects is 20 megawatts of wind by 2025

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Go to the City’s website and read the Official Plan draft Section 4.11 HERE.

Comment on it at newOP@ottawa.ca and copy your City councillor

If you can donate to our sign campaign, please send a cheque to Ottawa Wind Concerns with a note “Signs” to

Wind Concerns Ontario

PO Box 91047

RPO SIGNATURE CTR

KANATA ON K2T 0A3

Thank you!!!!!

(We are using WCO’s mailbox as we don’t have one)

Contact: ottawawindconcerns@gmail.com

Return of land-use planning for renewable energy means action needed now, Ottawa committee told

04 Thursday Apr 2019

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April 4, 2019

The medical report supporting Ontario’s wind turbine noise regulations is now 10 years old–the regulations need to be updated

Ottawa Wind Concerns executive members Jane Wilson and Michael Baggott spoke at the meeting of the Ottawa Agricultural and Rural Affairs Committee (ARAC) today, and alerted the Committee that action is needed following new amendments to regulations on wind turbines by the Ford government.

A wind power project was proposed in 2008 for the North Gower-Richmond area, with potential to spread to Osgoode. The project did not proceed when the Germany-based proponent failed to qualify for the last round of proposals under the Wynne government. It would have exposed hundreds of people to wind power generator noise — that fact was acknowledged at the time by the power developer.

“Today, we know a lot more about wind power,” said Ottawa Wind Concerns Chair Jane Wilson. “We know that many wind turbines in Ontario were sited improperly and we know that many mistakes were made — the former Energy Minister said that in 2017. And, we know there are thousands of records of noise complaints in Ontario, that have not been resolved, and are waiting on enforcement of regulations.”

Now, the new Ontario government is making changes but they require action from Ontario municipalities. Four new amendments to regulations are in response to Ontario municipalities demanding a return of local land-use planning powers, which were stripped from municipalities by the McGuinty government and the Green Energy Act.

“The amendments have not been proclaimed yet,” Wilson said, “but we need to be ready in the event a wind power proposal is made in future.”

One of the proposals is that power developers must balance any environmental impacts against the benefit of their proposed power project. “The problem is,” Wilson told the Committee, “Ontario’s rules on wind turbine noise and setbacks for safety are inadequate and out of date. The supporting document the previous government used is now ten years old, and does not reflect practices in other countries around the world.”

She added that the Ontario regulations on noise do not meet new guidelines published last fall by the World Health Organization.

“You have to remember that wind turbines produce a range of noise emissions— it’s not like barking dogs, or traffic.”

The amended regulations also require power developers to prove their project meets all zoning regulations locally. This is a problem, Wilson said, because under the Green Energy Act, municipalities had no say, so there was no reason for them to have any such zoning or bylaws as would apply to the huge wind power projects.

Ottawa Wind Concerns referred to a comment document prepared by Wind Concerns Ontario, which recommended municipalities ask the Ford government for a transition period in which they could begin the work on bylaws, and to develop new, adequate rules for setbacks between homes and turbines, and new noise limits for wind turbines.

Ottawa has already shown leadership Wilson said, in passing a bylaw asking for “substantive” input to wind turbine projects, and now is the time to take action to protect residents from the industrial-scale wind power projects.

Councillor Scott Moffatt thanked the presenters for the information, and also Wind Concerns Ontario for its work to protect rural communities.

Several North Gower residents attended the meeting.

OttawaWindConcerns@gmail.com

Presentation here: NOTES FOR ARAC presentation-Apr4-2019

Wind Concerns Ontario regulation summary document: Summary of Regulation Changes jan 3