Government move an "admission of failure of Green Energy Act"

Here from the Manitoulin Expositor, a nice summary of recent Ontario government announcements and policy context. Manitoulin, or Great Spirit Island, is currently being scarred by wind power development.
 

Province paying wind farms for non-generation of power

ONTARIO September 18 —Ontario’s Minister of Energy Bob Chiarelli announced last Wednesday that the province would begin to pay wind power generators not to produce energy in an attempt to save taxpayers upwards of $200 million annually.

Since 2006, Ontario has seen a surplus in energy but until September 11 the government has paid for all generated electricity, needed or not.
Paying producers not to do just that is nothing new for the Ontario government as it currently pays Bruce Power to not churn out energy in times of surplus.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Ray Beaudry, spokesperson for the Manitoulin Coalition for Safe Energy Alternatives (MCSEA) from his home just below the site of the 24-turbine wind development on McLean’s Mountain currently under construction. “The province is broke and hydro rates continue to escalate. Why are they still proceeding with this mandate?” Mr. Beaudry questioned. “The province is climbing into energy poverty.”
He said he is doubtful the government will cancel any of the green energy projects it has signed contracts with for fear of political retribution similar to the Ontario Liberals’ gas plant scandal. “There’s no escape clause to get out of it and it’s the consumers that pay,” Mr. Beaudry added.

“It’s a flawed energy policy, but they can’t get out of them,” he continued. “It’s just not economically viable to continue with these projects.”

Peter Tabuns, NDP energy critic, told The Expositor that last week’s announcement brings wind in line with nuclear, as so far this year Bruce Power has been paid $60 million to not produce energy.
“Liberals have heavily overbuilt wind generation,” he said, noting that he doubted whether the $200 million was just for wind, when one factors in the $60 million figure for Bruce Power alone.
There are currently 2,000 MW of wind in the system that has a capacity of 4,000 MW, he added.
“I think they’re building a lot more wind and nuclear than we need,” Mr. Tabuns said. He said that one day, some of the province’s reactors will come to their end, either becoming too expensive to retrofit or simply in need of shutting down with the reduction in power finally meeting the province’s demands.

“New rules from the Independent Electricity Operator enabling the “dispatch” of wind generation in Ontario’s electricity system came into effect on September 11, 2013,” Beckie Codd-Downey, press secretary for the Ministry of Energy, told The Expositor in a statement prepared to answer questions posed by the paper. “The new rules allow wind turbines to be turned off when their generation is not needed. These new rules will provide significant ratepayer savings. For example, according to the Independent Electricity System Operator, making wind dispatchable is expected to save Ontario ratepayers at least $200 million every year.”

“Most other sources of energy in the province already have this dispatch ability,” Ms. Codd-Downey continued. “Because supply and demand conditions vary throughout the course of a day, we have to ensure that our electricity system is flexible enough to respond to changing conditions. That includes some compensation to power producers—including nuclear, gas, biomass, and wind—at times when their generation is not required. This approach is used in other jurisdictions and will help ensure that Ontarians continue to benefit from a reliable and clean supply of electricity.”
“Investments in renewable technology, like hydro, wind and solar, have helped the province to move away from dirty coal, protect our environment and improve our health,” she added. “The excellent supply conditions in Ontario today are in stark contrast to the shortages witnessed about a decade ago.”
“As of June 2013, the Ontario Power Authority was managing 123 wind contracts, representing a total of over 5,700 MW,” Ms. Beckie Codd-Downey continued. “Of this total, 58 contracts (representing over 2,100 MW) were in service and 65 contracts (representing over 3,500 MW) were under development. The OPA will continue to honour existing renewable energy contracts.”
“Well don’t worry, they weren’t generating much anyway,” joked Vic Fedeli, Progressive Conservative energy critic and Nipissing MPP.
“This is a complete and utter admission that the Green Energy Act is a complete failure,” he added. “They’re trying to alleviate the criticism and account for the fact that we’ve paid so much money to the States. Half a billion we’re paying to have that surplus power.”
“This is just an absolutely ridiculous new ruling that’s going to cost money,” Mr. Fedeli said.
“I was on Manitoulin with my megaphone, I know the community does not want those turbines—they’re an awful blight on the landscape,” he continued.
“There’s nothing green about the Green Energy Act. Water power, the cleanest power there is, has been cut from 25 percent to 22 percent with an added three percent of wind. After billions of dollars spent, 25 percent of the total is still green energy—nothing has changed.”
“And when they say they’re going to save $200 million, don’t believe it—we don’t believe any amounts the Liberals give us,” Mr. Fedeli concluded, pointing to the gas plant scandals plaguing the province’s leaders.
Minister Chiarelli has answered Mr. Fedeli’s criticism by saying that Ontario is making a net profit of up to $6 billion a year on importing and exporting electricity, a turnaround from a decade ago when the province paid $500 million to import power because it didn’t have enough to meet demand.
While it isn’t unusual for neighbouring jurisdictions to sell each other electricity, Ontario would frequently have to pay Quebec or New York State to take the excess power off its hands.
Alicia McCutcheon
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Manitoulin Island: wind turbines a deal with the devil

From the Manitoulin Gazette today, this letter.

Wind turbine money is a deal with the devil

To the Expositor:

I hope a lot of people saw and read the letter in the September 4 issue and I hope it’s a wake up call for the First Nations leaders (Letter writers ask First Nations people…’ page 5).
I have been saying this for a long time that these windmills are nothing but bad news and I hope they will smarten up and find a way to stop building these windmills on Manitoulin but people disagree with me on this because they think they know better but now I am starting to know that I am right and people who have them close by are starting to get sick, I guess. The landowners who are letting them on property are doing it for the money and I hear First Nations leaders always talking about the Creator so I will ask a question: who do you really believe in, the Creator or the almighty dollar? I think I have my answer to that but do not get me wrong because I can tell just by your actions that you sold out your own people for the sake of a dollar.
Money is not going to be around forever and it’s like making a deal with the devil. Sorry to say but money is not everything, it’s about looking after the land properly and the wildlife and to leave it to its natural state because these windmills may turn Manitoulin into a wasteland, especially around the Little Current area. But as I said before, time will tell but I hope that I will be wrong this time but then again, I am usually right.

Ron Osawabine

Wikwemikong

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Manitoulin: tax losses for communities mounting due to wind power

Here is a letter to the Editor of the Manitoulin Expositor, which details an aspect of wind power that neither the provincial government, nor municipalities have thought about in detail: as property values decline and the quality of community life disintegrates with the industrialization by wind power projects, what happens to the tax base? The paltry amounts provided by the wind developers don't make up for the terrible loss to Ontario's rural and small urban communities.

Here is the letter with thanks to Ray Beaudry of MCSEA for sending it.

To the Expositor:

NEMI has turned its back on a great potential tax base and a lifeline for the community: retiring Baby Boomers.
We retired and moved to the Strawberry Channel in December 2011. Almost a year later, we found that 24 Northland Power Wind Turbines (the largest in Ontario: 422 feet high) will be built in our backyard. Had I known, I would not have looked at this area as a place to purchase our dream retirement home. Our retiring friends have now decided to look instead to Lake Nipissing. Another couple will settle in Parry Sound rather than live near wind turbines.
We are all retired from industrial areas like Espanola and Sudbury and our objective is to get away from industrial messes. I have been told that Northland Power will contribute a paltry $10,000/year to the tax base and possibly three long-term jobs. Our property taxes for 2013 are $4104.26. We don’t have sewer or water or garbage pickup. We plow our own road. We have good retirement incomes, with good benefits and we spend all of it here. The loss of our two friends is greater than Northland Power’s contribution to the community.
Driving through Michigan, I was distressed to see town after town boarded up beneath wind turbines. I don’t know the answer, but I will pose this question: Were the wind turbines built there because the towns were dead or did the towns die because the wind turbines were built?

Diane Austen

Sheguiandah

Editor's note: regrettably, the 422-foot turbines being built by Northland Power are  NOT the largest and most powerful in the province. Turbines being built in southwestern and eastern Ontario are larger and more powerful. For example, South Branch project turbines will be 512 feet and North Gower (Ottawa) will be 626 feet, or twice the height of the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill.
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Environmental devastation on Manitoulin Island

Here from today's edition of The Sudbury Star, an opinion piece by Ruth Farquhar on what the wind power project at McLean's Mount means in terms of the environment. Excerpt:

Have you ever felt heartsick? That's what I call it when I see something I can't really do anything about but you know in your core it's just wrong on so many levels.
   I took a tour of the work that is happening on MacLean's Mountain to install the industrial wind turbines.      As I looked at all of the land being destroyed, the wetlands being filled in, truck after truck of gravel going up and down the back roads, blasting the rock, that's how I felt -- heartsick.
   If you want to see the beauty that is McLean's Mountain and surrounding area I would suggest you visit now because it is going to be long gone in just a few short months.
   I find it fascinating that people have been shrugging off the project and still seem surprised when anyone talks about how it may affect the Island and its peoples. They seem to think the turbines are plunked down without the connecting lines to the transmission line that will take this highly subsidized energy off the Island.
   Each of the 24 turbines needs to have clear cutting to take the connector lines to the transmission line, imagine if you will a spider web of lines all over the mountain and going down Greenbush Road to Harbor Vue road and then underwater to Goat Island. When I was there, a barge in the North Channel was laying down the submarine cable. At the end of Harbor Vue road they are building a transition station, which according to one source, was not part of the original plan.
   It seems many people are getting more than they bargain for with this project. Even the transmission line poles are not like any hydro poles I've seen. They are from 25 metres to 32 metres tall and the ones I saw and took pictures of were oozing some kind of treatment while lying in the ditch waiting to be put up.
   A couple of weeks ago, an environmental review tribunal overturned the province's earlier approval of a wind turbine site in Prince Edward County due to the rare Blanding's turtle, saying the required access roads would cause "serious and irreversible harm" to the rare reptile.
   But the province is challenging the findings and it is being appealed to divisional court. The craziness continues.

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