Tag Archives: safety

Renewable energy amendment passed by Ottawa City Council

12 Wednesday Jul 2023

Posted by in Health, Ottawa, Renewable energy, Wind power

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Renewable energy projects are an industrial land use, and people must be protected from noise and other impacts, says Ottawa Wind Concerns [Photo: D. Larsen for Wind Concerns Ontario]
July 12, 2023

Ottawa City Council today passed an amendment to the Official Plan, that will not allow for new renewable energy projects to get municipal approval until after the City has new zoning bylaws appropriate to that land use.

Municipal approval is now mandatory for successful proposals to the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO). The IESO is launching another Request for Proposals in a few months, and will begin another RFP in 2025, as Ontario plans to double its power supply with “clean” emissions–free sources of generation.

“This is a step forward,” says Ottawa Wind Concerns Chair Jane Wilson. “We were concerned that proposals might come forward in the 2023 RFPs and there would be no protection for rural residents from noise emissions and other impacts of wind and solar power projects, which are an industrial land use. The City of Ottawa has clearly shown that they are aware of the need to protect health and safety as they move forward with new zoning bylaws.”

Municipal approval is mandatory and with the repeal of the Green Energy Act in 2018, planning powers removed by the McGuinty government were returned to municipalities—that means they can determine setback distances, noise limits, and other regulations to control development. A key concern for Ottawa is the protection of valuable agricultural land.

As regards the risk of noise pollution and other impacts such as danger from fires, turbine collapse and ice throw, City staff have said they want to “do the right thing.”

Following approval of the proposed amendment at last week’s meeting of the Agricultural and Rural Affairs Committee, a spokesperson for a local group spoke out against it, saying there was no reason to slow down renewable energy proposals. Angela Keller-Herzog of Community Associations for Environmental Sustainability was quoted by the CBC as saying we need battery energy storage systems for example during power outages so “our kids” can do their homework.

According the hydro authorities, the major cause of power outages is damage to transmission lines, which prevents power from any source reaching homes.

“It is interesting when ‘environmental’ groups appear not to actually care about protecting the environment,” says Ottawa Wind Concerns’ Wilson, who is a Registered Nurse.

“Our concern is to ensure that health and safety are protected so that families can live in peace and safety in Ottawa’s rural communities.”

The amendment states in part:

This report is an interim step towards regulating renewable energy generation facilities in accordance with policies in the Official Plan which direct renewable energy generation facilities that require provincial approval to certain rural designations. Once the amendments proposed in this report come into effect, renewable energy generation facilities will not be permitted in any zone until such time as a subsequent report is approved with appropriate provisions to regulate such facilities.

Ottawa Wind Concerns’ input was noted in the report, with the statement that we will be kept informed of any developments.

Also on the Agenda at Ottawa City Council was the submission of the petitions sponsored by Ottawa Wind Concerns, asking for a minimum 2-km setback between any wind turbines proposed, and homes, as well as other land uses where people might be affected.

City staff noted that there are no proposals known for power development (but a battery storage project is in development  https://evolugen.com/facilities/rabbit-battery/   in Cumberland) but with a series of Requests for Proposal coming from the IESO, anything is possible.

Ontario’s Energy Minister Todd Smith recently made several announcements, namely new nuclear at Bruce and Darlington, and a new plan called Powering Ontario’s Growth. (Read the news release and see links here: https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/1003253/province-launches-plan-to-power-ontarios-growth)

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.Our goal: a safe environment…for everyone

Recent wind turbine failures are cause for concern

02 Thursday Sep 2021

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Turbine mast and blades cover the ground in the Bow Lake wind power facility. Photo: Sault Online.

Meanwhile, Ottawa plans to allow industrial-scale turbines in rural areas as early as 2025

September 2, 2021

The failure of a wind turbine at the Bow Lake wind power facility near Sault Ste. Marie is raising questions about safety around the giant industrial structures and current Ontario regulations.

The collapse of the Bow Lake turbine is being investigated by the power facility operator, BluEarth Renewables, and there were no injuries associated with the event. However, as can be seen from the photo of the debris field, it is worth questioning what might have happened if the collapse had occurred on a farm property in southern Ontario.

Interviewed for the story in Sault Online , engineer Bill Palmer said “this incident is the 10th wind turbine failure in Ontario that has put the blades (and in this case all three of the 50 metre long blades for the failed turbine) onto the ground… this is the second collapse of a very similar GE wind turbine and the 6th case in Ontario in which GE turbines have put blades on the ground”.

Palmer has published numerous academic papers and appeared at international conferences on wind turbines and health and safety. He was also a witness in the citizen appeal of the Nation Rise project south of Ottawa. He noted that his personal experience with a turbine failure showed debris was flung more than 500 metres.

The Ontario regulation for setback between a wind turbine and a roadway or right of way is currently blade length plus 10 metres. In the case of the Nation Rise power project for example, that would be 79 metres or just 259 feet.

Just two months ago, a turbine failed in Southgate, just west of Toronto. The roadway nearby was closed for a week. No conclusions of the investigation into the event have been published to date.

The City of Ottawa plans to allow wind turbines in rural areas, according to its “Energy Evolution” document. The City states that one of its projects is changes to the electricity sector, which includes a plan “to develop local or regional renewable electricity supplies”. The “project metric” to “be undertaken 2020-2025” is for 20 megawatts of wind, or possibly six to seven industrial-scale wind turbines.

In a Tweet to Ottawa Wind Concerns today, Ward 21 Councillor Scott Moffatt, chair of the environment committee and co-chair of planning, said the City plans to regulate the turbines “within Ottawa.” He added that Ottawa does not “have any ability to say no to wind turbines in perpetuity.”

(In fact, other municipalities have made large-scale turbines a “not permitted” use [Dutton Dunwich] and others have strict rules about the size of turbines allowed [Prince Edward County]. The difference? Those communities are near active wind turbine projects and know what the issues are.)

“People who have never seen an actual modern wind turbine and who are familiar only with images from the wind power developers’ lobby group may not understand that these are industrial structures,” says Jane Wilson, president of Wind Concerns Ontario. “We are calling for an update to Ontario’s regulations for these power generators, for both safety and health. The current regulations are unchanged from 2009 and the McGuinty government, despite the fact turbines are growing more massive every year.

With the City of Ottawa calling for the installation of wind turbines as part of a Net Zero emissions strategy, more turbines could be on the way for Ontario.

“Government needs to act, now,” Wilson says.

Source: William Palmer PEng. Published in Sault Online

OttawaWindConcerns@gmail.com

How the wind power industry made a fool out of Ontario

02 Tuesday Apr 2019

Posted by in Health, Renewable energy, Uncategorized, Wind power

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How the wind power industry made a fool out of Ontario

Noise complaints unanswered, wells contaminated, a huge job ahead to unwind the damage

Home in Huron County surrounded by turbines: no laughing matter [Photo Gary Moon]

April 1, 2019

It’s now almost a decade since Ontario passed the Green Energy and Green Economy Act, which opened the door to industrial-scale wind power developments throughout the province, and heralded ten years of environmental impact … for nothing.

In fact, the province had already approved a gigantic wind power project in Melancthon, and racked up hundreds of noise complaints before the Green Energy Act was passed — the government went ahead anyway.

Today, we have high electricity bills which are harming ordinary families and discouraging business investment; the government has records of thousands of complaints about wind turbine noise and vibration (mostly unresolved); there are 40 or more families in Chatham-Kent who trace the failure of their water wells to construction and operation of wind turbines on a fragile aquifer there; and, we are seeing the environmental impacts that were brought forward in citizen appeals of Renewable Energy Approvals now becoming reality.

Ontario citizens spent close to $10 million in after-tax dollars to protect their communities from the onslaught of large-scale wind power, according to a survey Wind Concerns Ontario did of our coalition members.

The Ontario wind power disaster should not have been a surprise.

Auditor General Jim McCarty chastised the McGuinty government for never having done a cost-benefit or impact study on the wind power program; subsequently, current Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk estimated that Ontario electricity customers overpaid for renewable energy by $9.2 billion.

Guaranteed to fail

The program to encourage large-scale wind power (the province had a choice back in 2004 onwards to go for small-scale power generation–that’s not what they chose, guided by wind lobbyists) was based on ideology and was criticized by such informed analysts as Michael Trebilcock, who said “This combination of irresponsibility and venality has produced a lethal brew of policies.”

Economics professor Ross McKitrick predicted, “If the goal [of the Green Energy Act] was to promote industry and create jobs, it is guaranteed to fail.”

And Tom Adams, who said, “Urban Ontario, including city-bound journalists, are largely unaware of the corrosive effects some wind developments are having on communities, neighbourhoods, even families. This is expropriation without compensation.”

The jobs never materialized, electricity bills went up, a new phrase “energy poverty” was coined, businesses closed or left, and families were forced to leave their homes because of unbearable noise.

Noise complaints are so prevalent in Huron County that the health unit launched a follow-up study (results will be published later this year). Preliminary data showed that 60% of the people participating in the follow-up were experiencing problems because of wind turbine noise.

Wind Concerns Ontario presented the government’s own noise complaint data as evidence at the appeal of the Nation Rise power project last summer; the approval was upheld regardless of citizen concerns about noise, and damage to a provincially designated “highly vulnerable aquifer.”

Meanwhile, reports of noise are investigated on behalf of the wind power operators by the same companies who prepared the original noise impact assessments for them; one such acoustics firm even boasts that it created the government’s noise assessment protocol.

The fox is not only in the hen house, he built it to ensure easy access.

As Ontario’s new government struggles with all this (Energy Minister Greg Rickford told the Legislature last week that this is a “very difficult” file), there is little to laugh about in Ontario today as the spring winds blow, and families face more sleepless nights.

[Reposted from Wind Concerns Ontario, http://www.windconcernsontario.ca]

Fundraiser-information brunch in Finch this weekend

12 Wednesday Sep 2018

Posted by in Renewable energy, Wind power

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Berwick area farm: 33 huge industrial wind turbines proposed, with risk to health, safety, environment and wildlife [Photo Dorothea Larsen, Kemptville]

September 12, 2018

The Concerned Citizens of North Stormont are hosting a special Country Breakfast-Brunch event this Saturday, September 15 at the Finch Arena, to offer information on the 100-megawatt “Nation Rise” wind power project, and to help raise funds for the citizen appeal of the power project.

The project is neither necessary nor wanted by the community.

The Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) has stated that the project has met all the milestones; this is not possible as the project is under appeal, and is subject to a condition-laden Renewable Energy Approval. That approval was granted just three days before the writ for the recent Ontario election was drawn up.

In response to citizen concerns about damage to the aquifer and water supply and health impacts of exposure to noise emissions from the turbines, the power developer, EDPR of Spain, actually changed material aspect of the project in the middle of the appeal. The company announced in documents filed with the Environmental Review Tribunal that it was changed the method of construction to be used for the foundations, and changing the equipment type for the turbines.

The appeal has been halted for the moment but resumes next week with testimony on hydrogeology and risks to the environment.

The Brunch event is from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

For more information contact: http://concernedcitizensofnorthstormont.ca/