Thursday, August 26, 2010

Wind Power Veteran Responds to Pugwash Critics

(Note: At the GSPA AGM Charles Demond is referring to - attended by 106 people - he asked the meeting that if he withdrew his project from the area, would we all promise not to say anything negative about him in the Press? It looks here as if he was simply setting us up to get the first draw. Sad that allnovascotia.com didn't bother to try to contact the GSPA - we're not hard to find).


By David Bentley

AllNovaScotia.com

26 August 2010

“We’re definitely not walking away from the project,” said Charles Demond, commenting yesterday on a new outburst of opposition to a wind farm his company wants to build at Gulf Shore, near Pugwash.

The ceo of Atlantic Wind Power Corp described the reaction to his presentation at the annual meeting of the Gulf Shore Preservation Association as negative and “very unpleasant”.

Demond said he asked to attend the weekend event so he could outline a new plan for the 33 to 36 megawatt project that would reduce the number of turbines from 19 to 11-12, with a height of 140 to 150 metres.

The redesign, which would mean using less efficient turbines, was an attempt to respond positively to previous opposition from the group, including Anne Murray, who was also in attendance Sunday, he said.

But it appeared from remarks attributed to chair Lisa Betts that the aim of the association was to drive Atlantic Windpower out of the community, he said.

Betts & Co contend that the wind farm would conflict with further development of a cottage community where many of them own property.

“Maybe they dislike me and our company so much they want us gone,” said Demond.

“But I’ve got to tell you that doesn’t mean there won’t be a wind farm there. We have built a lot of value there.”

He added that one option would be to sell the project on to another developer.

“Or we might go full circle and do this thing ourselves,” he said.

Demond said the project, as it is now configured, is over a kilometer away from the vast majority of homes – and 1.5 kilometres distant from most of them.

He’s confident the wind farm can be permitted and he doesn’t think the 80 to 90 people at the meeting represent the opinion of most local residents, describing them as an older group.

He said the property rights of the five owners who would lease land for the farm are not being respected and this is “fundamentally troubling.”

Atlantic Windpower is positioning the Pugwash project so that it is ready for the next Request for Proposals [RFP] for windpower.

As it moves further forward, there will be a formal application for environmental approval and an approach for construction financing.

Demond is an old hand in the windpower business. Atlantic Windpower built the first wind farm in the province. The 30.6 meg Pubnico Point project opened in 2005.

The company also spearheaded the 45 meg wind farm at Nuttby, Colchester County, which is now being built by NS Power.

Demond said the company is working on other projects, but declined to identify them.

NSP looks to the future


Halifax Chronicle Herald

Nova Scotia Power is on the prowl for new sources of natural gas to replace the dwindling supplies from the offshore.

The utility has been in discussions with potential producers of coal-bed methane in Nova Scotia and shale gas developers in New Brunswick, according to documents filed with the provincial Utility and Review Board.

Nova Scotia Power says it "continues to focus on potential future sources of natural gas, both onshore and offshore," but for confidentiality reasons, the utility will not discuss its suppliers, spokeswoman Patty Faith said Wednesday.

In evidence filed with the board leading up to an Oct. 18 hearing on power rates, the utility says it has approached shale gas developers in New Brunswick, including Corridor Resources, Windsor Energy, Apache Canada, Southwestern Energy and PetroWorth Resources.

The use of natural gas to generate electricity will become an increasingly important component of Nova Scotia Power’s effort to comply with government regulations requiring a reduction in the amount of greenhouse gases that power-generating stations can belch into the atmosphere.

Nova Scotia Power is responsible for about half of the province’s greenhouse gas emissions of 10 million tonnes a year. The government wants the utility to cut its emissions by 25 per cent by 2020.

"It’s going to be one of the cornerstones of ensuring renewables take place because natural gas is going to be producing less greenhouse gases than oil or coal," Dalhousie University professor Larry Hughes said Wednesday.

"So that’s why they will want to be finding sources of natural gas, and it can also be used as rapid backup if they’re using gas turbines."

Nova Scotia Power uses natural gas at its retrofitted Tufts Cove power station in Dartmouth, and today that plant represents about 13 per cent of the utility’s generating capacity.

In 1997, Nova Scotia Power signed a 10-year contract with Shell Canada, one of the Sable natural gas producers, to buy 60 million cubic feet of gas per day at a fixed rate for that period.

ExxonMobil, the lead partner in the Sable project, announced recently it is not developing nearby gas fields, and the project’s supply has been declining.

"It’s also going to be a price issue," Hughes said. "Natural gas is cheap right now, the question we have to ask is where is it going to come from?"

Nova Scotia Power applied to the review board earlier this month to raise residential rates by 6.5 per cent starting next year. The increase would cost the province’s 440,000 households an extra $13.35 per two-month billing period, or $6.68 per month, plus tax. The average residential customer has a bill of $244.08 every two months.

The utility is also seeking rate increases of 8.6 per cent for commercial customers and 11.3 per cent for industrial consumers.

The increases, if the review board approves them, would take effect next New Year’s Day

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1198694.html

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Wind farms have noise detectives on the prowl

Richard Blackwell

Globe and Mail

*Includes clarification


A Toronto company hired by the Ontario government is probing for the ‘cold hard facts’ about the sounds emitted from wind turbines


A small Toronto company that designed the acoustics of many of Canada’s premier concert halls is now figuring out the best way to measure noise from wind turbines, a project that will have major implications for the country’s burgeoning wind power industry.

Aercoustics Engineering Ltd., a 30-employee acoustical consulting firm, created the rich sounds of some of the classiest theatres in Canada – the new Four Seasons opera house and the Royal Conservatory of Music concert hall in Toronto, and Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre, among many others.

Now Aercoustics has won a contract from the Ontario government to develop techniques for measuring the audible noise from wind turbines, and will deliver the results to the province this fall. There is no accepted procedure anywhere for measuring noise from turbines, Ontario officials say, so Aercoustics’ report could help set standards across the country and internationally.

But the company is wading into what has become a controversial issue as wind farms sprout across Ontario and the rest of the country. While Ontario long ago set guidelines for the amount of noise turbines are allowed to emit, it has never had a consistent, formal method of measuring that noise.

That has infuriated wind farm opponents. “These wind developments that are now in existence have gone forward without this kind of knowledge,” said Beth Harrington, a spokeswoman for the Society for Wind Vigilance. “It’s one of those cases of the cart before the horse.”

Critics say the noise and vibrations from turbines can cause a variety of health problems – including stress and sleep deprivation – for those who live nearby. With more than 2,000 turbines already built across Canada and thousands more planned, increasing numbers of people will be exposed to the noise.

Many wind developers dismiss worries about turbines’ possible effect on health, saying there is no evidence of such a link.

Aercoustics’ executives are careful not to take sides in the debate. “[We’re] coming at it from an engineering point of view, [so] it’s got to be objective,” said John O’Keefe, a principal of Aercoustics and one of the company’s five shareholders. The idea is to be able to determine “cold hard facts, measured consistently.”

In addition to its work with concert halls, Aercoustics has established itself as an innovator in industrial and environmental work. It designed a rubber isolation system that keeps residents of a condo building constructed directly over Toronto’s Bloor subway line from feeling any vibration from the trains below. And it has helped companies ranging from ethanol producers to gravel quarries mitigate their sound problems.

Mr. O’Keefe noted that just because no one has yet made a convincing scientific case for the link between turbine noise and health, that doesn’t mean one doesn’t exist. “What we have to do as engineers is to keep an open mind,” Mr. O’Keefe said.

Essentially, Aercoustics will recommend to the government how best to measure turbine sounds: what kind of measuring equipment to use, where to place the sensors and at what height, and how to filter out the buffeting from the wind.

Mr. O’Keefe said the techniques will allow a consistent “apples to apples” comparison of wind turbine noise at different sites, so the government can see if developers are complying with the rules and investigate noise complaints.

One key issue, said Aercoustics principal Vince Gambino, is to differentiate the sound of a turbine from the background noise of the wind. “There’s some difficulty in sorting out what component of the sound is from the wind and what component is from the turbine itself,” he said. Aercoustics is developing sophisticated analysis software that can help sort that out.

Most complaints about turbine noise come when wind speeds are low to moderate – below about 25 kilometres an hour, Mr. Gambino said. As wind speeds increase, turbines move faster and produce more noise, but that noise is partly masked by the wind.

Aercoustics already has some experience with wind projects – it helped investigate complaints about noise coming off wind turbines at the Kingsbridge wind farm built by Epcor Utilities Inc. on the shores of Lake Huron. The company’s measurements pinpointed the issue as a malfunctioning gearbox on some of the turbines, and Epcor was able to fix the problem.

Mr. O’Keefe noted that in the 1950s and 1960s, designers thought they had figured out exactly how to create perfect concert hall acoustics, but many of those venues ended up with poor-quality sound. Much more has been learned since then about concert acoustics, and that technology has vastly improved newer facilities.

“It could be the same thing here [with turbines noise],” he said, with new technology giving a better picture of exactly how sound is emitted. “We have to keep an objective, open mind.”

Editor's Note: The acoustics of the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts were designed by Sound Space Design of London, England, and Aercoustics Engineering Ltd. of Toronto, along with Toronto architects Diamond & Schmitt Architects Inc. Acoustics at the Royal Conservatory of Music were designed by Sound Space Design and Aercoustics.


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/wind-farms-have-noise-detectives-on-the-prowl/article1681893/


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Acoustic Advances

Acoustics Engineering Ltd. principal John O'Keefe says one of the key advances in acoustics in recent years has been the recognition that experiencing sound is multidimensional.

Just as a restaurant outing involves more than just the taste of food (ambiance and service are also crucial), the experience of sound of sound includes multiple dimensions, he said.

Acoustical engineers designing concert halls in the past focused almost exclusively on reverberation time - how long it takes the sound from the music to decay. In recent decades, they've realized that other factors such as clarity (the ability to differentiate sounds), lateral energy (sound from the side) and loudness are also important.

At the same time, the technology for measuring, analyzing and modelling sound improved dramatically, Mr. O'Keefe said. "Suddenly, with the power of a desktop you could build a computer model if a concert hall and didn't need a mainframe."

Among Aerocoustics' clients is Imax Corp., the big-screen company that is planning to build a series of portable, inflatable theatres for special events or in non-traditional markets.

"No one really cared about the acoustics of a plastic building before", Mr. O'Keefe said. "While the acoustics of wood, drywall and fibreglass are well understood, he said, it is a challenge to figure out how sound bounces around what is essentially a large plastic bubble".
Aerocoustics is helping Imax understand the acoustics of the innovative structures, which seat about 450 people.

Press release from GSPA

GSPA Overwhelmingly Rejects Wind Energy Development within the Community

Pugwash, Nova Scotia – August 23, 2010


At its Annual General Meeting held Sunday, August 22, the Gulf Shore Preservation Association (GSPA) listened to a presentation for a revised wind turbine development proposed by Cobequid Area Wind farms (CAWF) for the Gulf Shore, Nova Scotia, near Pugwash.


Following the presentation by CAWF, the GSPA overwhelmingly rejected developing a wind turbine project within the Gulf Shore community. “We had a tremendous turnout for this presentation. It is unequivocally clear that residents feel that this project is inconsistent with the responsible development of the area, and that any such development on the Gulf Shore would be a serious setback to the community”, said Lisa Betts, Chair of the GSPA. “The resolve of this community to fight this threat is absolute. We want the Nova Scotia Government, Nova Scotia Power, and prospective wind developers to know that this kind of project is in conflict with established critical economic drivers and is unsuitable for our vibrant community,” continued Betts.


The GSPA issued the following mission statement and position on wind energy development.


Mission Statement

Preserve a vibrant and growing community by promoting responsible development of the Gulf Shore area ensuring that prospective projects are consistent with maintaining the long-term sustainability, viability and quality of life of the community.


Position on Commercial Wind Energy Development

The GSPA’s position is that commercial wind energy projects are inconsistent with the responsible development of the area, and that any such development on the Gulf Shore would be a serious setback to the community.

Opposition to any such development is based on the following:


  1. Asymmetrical Benefit

Commercial wind energy projects do not promote sustainable growth when inserted directly into an existing community. Such projects are win-lose. They are economically beneficial to outside stakeholders at the expense of those within the community.


  1. Conflicting Industries

The commercial wind energy industry conflicts with our current destination tourism, recreational and retirement communities. These critical economic drivers are essential to Pugwash, Wallace and surrounding areas.


  1. Margin of Safety Should be Larger, Not Smaller

Given the uncertainty of the environmental, health, and economic impacts, it is irresponsible to site commercial wind energy development projects within existing communities.

  1. Negative Community Growth

Uncertainty stifles growth. The commercial wind energy industry maintains that these projects are benign but prospective community members will choose the certainty of no wind turbines over the uncertainty of living with them. Over fifty years of building the community will be undone with this continued threat.


  1. Future Community Growth Stopped

Commercial wind energy projects and the related infrastructure consume prime land areas otherwise available for residential and recreational expansion.


Specifically addressing the immediate proposal

It is becoming increasingly clear that commercial wind power is about the economics, not the environment. This is about an intrusive project that takes much, and leaves little. We live in a democracy, and it is our intent and responsibility to use whatever reasonable means necessary to end this threat to our community.

In a final comment Betts said “Wind energy development in the Province of Nova Scotia needs thoughtful regulation with respect to proper siting so that win – lose situations, where rural communities are the losers, can be avoided”.

Wind farm threat to economy in northern N.S., group says

Developer scales back plans for Pugwash site to 11 turbines

Lisa Betts is continuing to fight against a revised plan for a wind farm in northern Nova Scotia’s cottage country.

Betts, singer Anne Murray and 100 other members of the Gulf Shore Preservation Association turned out Sunday afternoon to hear an update from wind developer Charles Demond about plans to build 11 large turbines in the area.

"We believe it would be economically detrimental to the whole entire area," said Betts, who lives in the scenic Gulf Shore area just outside Pugwash, on Tuesday.

"This is a destination (for) tourism (and a) recreational and retirement area. People deliberately come here for the peace and quiet. If we have any net loss of people coming in, we have a huge loss in the whole area."

Demond, whose Atlantic Wind Power is behind the proposal in Pugwash, gave few details about the wind project — which has been proposed for the last four years — except that the project will have fewer turbines, said Betts, chairwoman of the residents association.

The project’s original plan had 20 turbines and the wind farm would be located near the village of Pugwash.

Despite the news of fewer turbines to be built, the association still opposes the project, Betts said.

Following the presentation, the association overwhelmingly rejected the project.

"The resolve of this community to fight this threat is absolute. We want the Nova Scotia government, Nova Scotia Power and prospective wind developers to know that this kind of project is in conflict with established critical economic drivers and is unsuitable for our community," said Betts.

Demond could not be reached for comment.

Betts said Demond was unable to answer many questions about the status of the project, including some about the investors and whether the company had any customers for the green electricity.

Betts said he did mention that he has spent a lot of money on the project and is not willing to "walk away" at this point.

Nova Scotia has one of the best wind power regimes in North American, according to a Stanford University study.

And wind-generated electricity is being pushed by the government because it produces no emissions, is entirely renewable and ranks as one of the cleanest sources of electricity.

Three years ago, Murray — one of the area’s more famous seasonal residents — wrote a commentary in The Chronicle Herald saying many people want to build their dream home in the area. A wind farm would be catastrophic, she said.

The Springhill native said she supports the idea of wind-generated electricity but opposes the location of the turbines in an area close to where people live. She said there were too many unanswered questions concerning noise, vibration and shadow flicker from turbine blades.

At that time, Demond was upset with her comments and said her remarks were not helpful for his business and the project.


http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1198606.html

What's blowing in the wind

Published August 23rd, 2010
Darrell Cole

Developer feels vocal minority driving opposition

GULF SHORE - Residents here are gearing up for another fight to stop a wind farm from being developed in their community.

It is unequivocally clear that residents feel that this project is inconsistent with the responsible development of the area, and that any such development on the Gulf Shore would be a serious setback to the community,” Gulf Shore Preservation Association chair Lisa Betts said Monday. "The resolve of this community to fight this threat is absolute. We want the Nova Scotia Government, Nova Scotia Power, and prospective wind developers to know that this kind of project is in conflict with established critical economic drivers and is unsuitable for our vibrant community.”

Charles Demond of the Atlantic Wind Power Corporation spoke to residents during the association's annual general meeting on Sunday at the Pugwash legion. It's believed the corporation wants to erect 11 or 12 turbines in the Gulf Shore area that would have a height, including turbine and blade of 140-150 metres.

Demond said he was invited by Betts to speak at the meeting and feels a few people are driving the opposition.

"We intended to present our revised plans reducing the number of turbines from 19 down to 11 or 12," Demond said in a prepared statement. "Although each would be higher in megawatts and taller by about 25 metres, almost an entire row of turbines would be eliminated. Frankly we believed this would be a good news story. Instead, a handful of people stirred the room with their apparent belief that no wind turbines should exist anywhere within kilometres of their properties no matter.

"This vocal opposing view is arbitrary and assumes that the farmer and woodlot owners who want to host the wind farm have no rights at all. Because of the continued interest in this project among stakeholders and the honest merits of the site, we strongly believe that one day a wind farm will be on these lands. We are just not as confident that we will be the developer that is there at the end of the day to cut the ribbon."

The area being proposed for the turbines is very similar to where Demond's company planned to put 20-27 turbines several years ago.

http://www.amherstdaily.com/News/Local/2010-08-23/article-1692378/Whats-blowing-in-the-wind/1

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Prepare for a shocker

Nova Scotia Power wants to raise rates by another 6.5 per cent next year


Nova Scotia homeowners are facing their sixth power rate increase in nine years after Nova Scotia Power applied to government regulators on Monday to raise rates 6.5 per cent starting next year.

The increase would cost the province’s 440,000 households an extra $13.35 per two-month billing period, or $6.68 per month, plus tax. The average residential customer has a bill of $244.08 every two months, according to a Nova Scotia Power internal memo inadvertently sent to The Chronicle Herald.

The utility is also seeking rate increases of 8.6 per cent for commercial customers and 11.3 per cent for industrial customers. The increases, if the provincial Utility and Review Board approves them, would take effect next New Year’s Day.

Nova Scotia Power needs to charge more to cover higher costs incurred this year for fuel to generate electricity, company president Rob Bennett said.

"Fuel is the largest cost in making electricity for customers," he said in a news release.

A hearing before the review board is scheduled for October.

Earlier this year, Nova Scotia Power forecast power rate hikes of 12 per cent for residential customers and 18 per cent for industrial customers so it could buy more expensive coal with reduced mercury content as the provincial government required.

But in late July, the Dexter government softened its pollution rules to save ratepayers money on their power bills. It extended until 2014 the 2010 deadline for the utility to lower its mercury emissions to 65 kilograms a year from 168.

"The government’s decision to manage mercury emissions differently over the next decade reduces the burden of rising fuel prices on customers — especially next year," Bennett said in a news release.

The extended deadline will reduce Nova Scotia Power’s fuel expenses by $60 million for 2011, the company says. It is forecasting fuel costs of $544.7 million for the year.

Premier Darrell Dexter said the proposed rate hikes are more reasonable than what was talked about earlier in the summer, but he’s still concerned about any increase.

"I’m not satisfied that the increase is what it is, but I am satisfied that we have made the effort that we could make in order to make the impact of the mercury emission targets as reasonable or as little as possible," Dexter said in an interview.

He said the province is still demanding that total emissions over the next 10 years not exceed the amount under the previous arrangement.

The premier said the government is working to reduce the province’s reliance on fossil fuels to generate electricity and that renewable energy sources will provide more stable pricing in the future.

Dexter said his government removed the provincial portion of the harmonized sales tax on power bills last fall to cushion the blow to consumers from continually increasing costs.

In its emailed memo, Nova Scotia Power said it is doing everything it can to keep costs down and it advises customers who cannot afford to pay more to contact Efficiency Nova Scotia for tips on how to reduce their use of electricity.

The email also says it is a "good-news story" that the company is asking for smaller increases than previously predicted.

Nova Scotia Power and its parent company, Emera, recorded lower profits in the last quarter but that is not behind the request for higher rates, the email says.

"We don’t make money on fuel, so it has no bearing on profits."


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UP, UP AND AWAY

Residential power-rate increases since 1996:

2002 3.1 per cent

2005 6.2 per cent

2006 8.6 per cent

2007 4.7 per cent

2009 9.4 per cent

Source: Nova Scotia Power

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1197337.html

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Blow job

Wind power is sold as the answer to Nova Scotia’s quest for renewable energy, but we’re overlooking the health effects on people who live near windmills, and some serious questions about whether wind can really solve our electrical problems.

The Coast, Halifax, NS

There are ironies everywhere if you notice them. Like the Dutch windmills on June MacDonald's yellow tablecloth. MacDonald, a 64-year-old retired school teacher with twinkling eyes and good-humoured determination, has been fighting for more than a year against the installation of windmills near her home in Baileys Brook, Pictou County. But they're nothing like the squat, old-fashioned ones on her kitchen table.

The modern industrial windmills that worry MacDonald and her husband, Rod, tower 121 metres to the topmost blade. That's almost one-and-a-half times the height of Purdy's Wharf Tower 2 on the Halifax waterfront. The tips of their 41-metre-long blades can sweep through the air at over 300 kilometres an hour, cleaving a swath of sky that covers 5,281 square metres, almost the same area as an American football field.

"The wind turbines won't be tiny, they'll be huge. They'll dominate that ridge line from end all the way down to end," says neighbour Kristen Overmyer as he stands in June MacDonald's living room, pointing across the cow pasture to Brown's Mountain, the imposing, weathered ridge that shelters the tiny community of Baileys Brook at its foot, but which is buffeted by strong westerly winds at its peak. "When you look at this beautiful setting here, your attention is going to be immediately drawn to these machines, so the character of this entire valley is going to be changed forever."

Another irony: Overmyer and his artist-wife, Susan, moved here seven years ago from the US after seeing pictures of Pictou County on American TV. They fell in love with the area's quiet beauty, but now find themselves trying to defend it against a big industrial project.

"I have a master's in mechanical engineering and three years ago, when I was first looking at these machines, yes, I could see a certain aesthetic appreciation for the design of them," says Overmyer, a tall, soft-spoken man whose neat appearance matches his meticulous research methods. "But when you take a setting like this and you transform it into an industrial power-generating plant, with not just one of these machines or three of these machines, but 30 of them in the first phase alone, then that's a very different story."

"I started off being pro-windmills until I learned a little more," says June MacDonald, who notes she'll likely see 18 turbines about 1,400 metres from her home. "However, we really have no guarantee of that because all we've seen so far is a map with dots on it."

The map with dots on it can be found in documents that Shear Wind Inc. submitted to provincial officials in August 2008.1 The Bedford-based company, which has since sold a controlling interest to Spanish billionaire Manuel Jove, president of Inveravante, a privately held Spanish utility conglomerate,2 was seeking environmental approval for Phase 1 of its Glen Dhu power project.3 The $170 million first phase consists of 30 wind turbines, each generating two megawatts of electricity. It was originally scheduled to be up and running by December 2009, but was postponed until the end of this year. Now, the company is promising to have it in full operation by early 2011. If a second phase is eventually approved, it could bring the total number of turbines to 100 or more, spread over 10,000 acres.4

Bitter lessons from Maine
Last year, the Overmyers, the MacDonalds and several of their neighbours established a non-profit group called the Eco Awareness Society to gather research and forge alliances in the fight against the Glen Dhu project.5 As part of their efforts, they began following events in Mars Hill, a town in northern Maine close to the New Brunswick border where 17 families have filed lawsuits against a wind company, two construction firms and the town itself over the installation of 28 one-and-a-half megawatt wind turbines.6 The Mars Hill turbines were erected along the top of a ridge similar in height to Brown's Mountain. And according to people who live within a kilometre of them, life has been hell since the first turbines started turning in December 2006.7

"I have never felt the rage that I feel when I go out to put chicken on my grill and it's so damn loud I don't want to stand out there and cook it," says Carol Cowperthwaite, a 68-year-old retired teacher who lives with her husband Merle on land facing Mars Hill Mountain. "I've never felt that kind of rage. It's like a rage where I could kill somebody. That's how it affects me."

The Cowperthwaites are among the families who have launched lawsuits seeking compensation for loss in property values as well as for the adverse health and environmental effects they say the wind turbines are causing. Carol Cowperthwaite says a municipal official assured them before they bought their property that the turbines wouldn't affect them. "The town manager told us three times, three different times he told us, that we wouldn't even see them, much less hear them because they were going on the front side of the mountain. That was a huge lie."

The Cowperthwaites participated in a study of turbine effects conducted by Michael Nissenbaum, a radiologist who practises at the Northern Maine Medical Center. Nissenbaum interviewed 22 of about 30 adults living within a kilometre of the turbines. He found 18 reported chronic sleep deprivation, nine said they were experiencing severe headaches, including migraines, 13 reported stress, 17 persistent anger and more than a third had new or worsened depression. Residents also reported dizziness and nausea due to the flickering light and shadows cast by fast-turning turbine blades.

When Nissenbaum compared those results with 27 interviews he conducted among people who lived nearly five kilometres away, he found that the greater distance reduced turbine health effects to zero. He presented his findings to the Maine Medical Association, which passed a resolution last September calling for more public education about the effects of wind turbines, as well as further research. "It is not a matter of not having wind turbines," Nissenbaum's study concludes. "It is a matter of putting them where they will not affect people's health."8

Glen Dhu worries
Last January, The Coast began asking Ian Tillard, Shear Wind's chief operating officer, for an interview about the Glen Dhu project in Pictou County. Tillard agreed to talk, but repeatedly postponed interview dates set up in February and March. In April, he said he didn't see the need for an interview after all, and referred us to company newsletters and other public documents. Those documents say that the closest homes will be 1.12 kilometres away from the turbines. These are properties whose owners are leasing land to the company. The Overmyers, MacDonalds and other residents around Baileys Brook, who are not leasing land, will be at least 1.44 kilometres from the turbines.

"I would say the people in Nova Scotia have reason to be worried," says Richard James, an acoustics engineer based in Michigan. He notes that as in Mars Hill, Maine, the Shear Wind turbines will be installed on ridge tops. "Wind speeds on top of the ridge will generally be much, much higher than they are in the valley at the foot of the ridge." James says. "This leads to a very common condition where during the night there's absolutely no sound in the community at the foot of the ridge. It would be so quiet you could hear a clock ticking and the turbines will be running full blast and that will lead to complaints."

James, who has worked since 2006 on wind turbine issues with community groups in the eastern US and Ontario,9 says that large turbines on ridge tops should be at least three kilometres from the nearest homes. He explains that the low frequency noise generated by turbines can carry long distances. "If you can imagine a thunder storm when it's at a great distance you hear a rumble," James says. "It's essentially a low vibratory rumble that goes right through people's homes. Windows open, windows closed, doesn't matter."

He adds that under moderate wind conditions, the turbines produce a "whoosh, whoosh, whoosh," while higher winds generate thumping sounds. "It can actually turn into thumps that are palpable in a person's chest," he explains. "I've experienced that personally and I'm not particularly sensitive to low frequency sound. I know other acousticians who are more sensitive to low frequency and they have a difficulty even being near the wind turbines."

James is familiar with the situation in Lower West Pubnico, where Daniel d'Entremont, his wife Carolyn and their six children abandoned their home in 2006 about a year after the installation of 17 wind turbines, some as close as 300 metres and all within 1.6 kilometres. The d'Entremonts suffered a wide range of effects including ringing in their ears, blurred vision and problems concentrating on school work. "I get this pulsating feeling in my chest---a feeling I don't like, but I can't get rid of," Daniel d'Entremont told the Halifax Daily News. "I can't shake it off, unless I get away from the turbines."10

Ward and Mae Brubacher know the feeling. The Brubachers, a couple in their 50s who live 750 metres from two Shear Wind turbines on remote Fitzpatrick Mountain in Pictou County,11 compare the noise vibrations to the booming of car stereo speakers. "Many times we have laid awake in bed with all the windows shut in the house listening to the whompf, whompf, whompf," says Ward Brubacher. "You get up, you read, you wait until you're exhausted so you can sleep through it."

"There are times when I've been working on my flowerbeds and I have to get into the car and go into town for a break from the noise," says Mae Brubacher. "Sometimes it's four to five days in a row when it's really loud. You're losing sleep and there are certain days when you're stressed to the limit." In another of life's ironies, the Brubachers generate electricity from a solar panel and live completely off the grid. They describe themselves as "tree huggers" who have nothing against "green" energy, but add that people who haven't experienced wind turbines have no idea what they're like.

"The general public is quite excited about wind power and have been brainwashed to think wherever they see a wind farm that's great, Nova Scotia is becoming a leader in green energy," Ward says. "People are brainwashed to think that. That's what we're up against."

Citizens groups fighting the installation of wind turbines are now active all over the world including in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the US and Canada. In April, the Japanese government responded to persistent citizens' complaints about headaches, insomnia, dizziness and buzzing in the ears by setting up a four-year health study.12 Meanwhile, in Ontario, a coalition of 44 citizens' groups called Wind Concerns Ontario has helped persuade more than 60 municipalities to pass resolutions calling for more local control over wind projects, and in some cases, a moratorium on new ones.13 The coalition is also supporting a lawsuit to be heard in September that, if successful, could stop any new projects until independent medical studies are completed.14

Nova Scotia opposition
So far in Nova Scotia, public officials from the premier on down seem singularly unconcerned about the potential health effects of wind turbines. Darrell Dexter told us in late April that although numerous scientific studies have been conducted, none has found any connection between turbines and health---a statement contradicted by Allison Denning, a senior official at the federal health department. In August 2009, Denning sent a letter to provincial environment officials listing a number of peer-reviewed scientific studies which suggest that wind turbines may have adverse health effects.15

Official indifference and company secrecy have made opposition to the Glen Dhu project an exercise in frustration. When residents around Baileys Brook tried to find out how close the wind turbines would be to their homes, Shear Wind refused to release site maps. Instead, the company assured residents they had nothing to worry about. Kristen Overmyer says that at a public meeting on August 30, 2007, Shear Wind president and CEO Mike Magnus claimed the closest turbines would be at least two kilometres away. Overmyer says Magnus went even further during a public meeting on April 2, 2008. When homeowner Bob Bennett of Merigomish expressed concerns that turbines would be installed near his home, the New Glasgow News quoted Magnus as saying, "From what we can gather, 95 percent of the turbines are located three to four kilometers away from the closest residence."16

Overmyer says residents finally discovered the truth when the company filed for environmental approval in August 2008. "Instead of the turbines being far back in the highlands as described, there was a phalanx of turbines pressed hard against the escarpment's edge and looming over the valley," Overmyer wrote in an email to The Coast. "The sheer magnitude of the deceit first shocked, then galvanized our group."

Overmyer and his neighbours gathered thousands of pages of technical evidence documenting the potential adverse effects of wind turbines on human health, on wildlife such as birds and bats and on possible disruptions to fragile ecosystems during construction and maintenance. In the fall of 2008, about 18 people sent letters outlining their evidence to provincial officials who were considering Shear Wind's application for environmental approval of its Glen Dhu project.

In October 2008, then-environment minister Mark Parent responded to citizens' complaints when he sent a letter to Shear Wind asking the company for more information about noise levels and the proximity of the turbines to homes.17 However, in a cabinet shuffle three months later, David Morse replaced Parent as environment minister and in February 2009, Morse approved the Glen Dhu project.

When the Eco Awareness Society wrote to the Minister of Health Promotion and Protection last April asking for a halt to any further wind projects until independent health studies had been conducted, Maureen MacDonald responded that her department did not have the power to intervene since wind projects are regulated by the Department of the Environment. Her letter arrived after the province announced that Nova Scotia would more than double renewable electricity generation by 2015 and quadruple it by 2020.18 The renewable electricity plan relies on the expansion of industrial wind projects and, since less than three percent of Nova Scotia's electricity now comes from wind, scores of new wind turbines may have to be installed across the rural landscape in an attempt to meet the government's targets.

Is wind really "green"?
And that brings us to another irony: In the end, wind power may not make that much of a difference in the actual volume of Nova Scotia's greenhouse gas emissions. To be sure, this is a hotly contested issue, but critics of wind power point out that adding large amounts of industrial wind power to the electricity grid is not as simple or problem-free as it seems. That's because wind is an intermittent and variable power source. It may or may not be blowing at optimum speeds when needed most. In fact, on average, wind turbines produce a maximum of only about 30 percent of their rated capacity over a given year, often when electricity demand is low.

The intermittency and variability of wind means it must be backed up by a more reliable source, and Nova Scotia Power is planning to use natural gas generators to do the job. That means that for every megawatt of intermittent wind power, NSPI must be able to generate a megawatt of power using natural gas turbines that can be turned up and down rapidly as winds rise and fall. Rapid powering up and down means the gas turbines run less efficiently, burning more fuel to generate each unit of electricity. And, as John Barwis, a retired petroleum geologist points out, "at some level of efficiency loss, the extra fossil fuel consumed becomes greater than the fuel saved from using wind turbines."19

In the end, all those extra single-cycle gas generators ever at the ready to back up intermittent wind turbines may emit enough greenhouse gases to cancel out most, if not all, of the emissions benefits of wind.20 21

Supporters of wind power, such as Professor Yves Gagnon at the University of Moncton,22 say that backing up intermittent wind would be easier if Nova Scotia expanded its grid connections with New Brunswick. When the wind isn't blowing in northern Nova Scotia, Gagnon says, we could import wind power from northern New Brunswick.

But critics say Maritime weather patterns are often regional and therefore it's not guaranteed that winds will be high in one province when they're low in the other. And although Nova Scotia Power is planning to expand its grid connections with New Brunswick,23 it will likely take five to 10 years to complete, the same period in which renewable power generation is supposed to quadruple.

So why is Nova Scotia uncritically embracing wind power? "Short answer: politics and money," says Kristen Overmyer who notes that governments set renewable energy targets creating the economic climate for the wind industry to make money, even if the greenhouse gas reductions the industry promises are questionable.

"People look at a wind turbine; it's a very visible sign that you're doing something for the environment. So the politicians can put up something very visible. What is sexy or visible about improving the efficiency of a power plant? Nothing."

Footnotes:

1 http://www.gov.ns.ca/nse/ea/glen.dhu.wind.farm/glen.dhu.wind.farm_VolumeI_Registration.Document_Sections1-4.pdf
2 http://www.ngnews.ca/Natural-resources/2009-11-13/article-800882/Cash-infusion-for-Shear-Wind/1
3 http://www.shearwind.com/projects/nova_scotia/glendhu.html
4 http://www.gov.ns.ca/nse/ea/glen.dhu.wind.farm.asp
5 http://www.ecoawarenesssociety.ca/default.html
6 http://www.wind-watch.org/documents/mars-hill-residents-suit-against-first-wind-et-al/
7 http://www.mpbn.net/Home/tabid/36/ctl/ViewItem/mid/3478/ItemId/8549/Default.aspx
8 http://www.wind-watch.org/documents/wind-turbines-health-ridgelines-and-valleys/
9 http://www.windvigilance.com/bio_James.aspx
10 http://pugwashwindfarm.blogspot.com/2007/09/todays-halifax-daily-news.html
11 http://wardmae.wordpress.com/2009/01/31/our-work/
12 http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201001180410.html
13 http://windconcernsontario.wordpress.com/2010/05/26/township-fights-back-calls-for-moratorium-and-health-study/
14 http://windconcernsontario.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/ian-hanna-lawsuit-donation-form-07-20101.pdf
15 http://windconcernsontario.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/health_canada_nova_scotia.pdf
16 http://www.ngnews.ca/Business/Natural-resources/2008-04-03/article-330472/Another-windfarm-blowing-into-Pictou-County/1
17 http://pugwashwindfarm.blogspot.com/2008/10/ns-wants-more-info-on-shear-wind-farm.html
18 https://www.gov.ns.ca/energy/resources/EM/renewable/renewable-electricity-plan.pdf
19 http://www.hollandsentinel.com/opinions/x1740779088/COMMUNITY-ADVISORY-BAORD-No-green-purpose
20 See, for example, a report by Peter Lang, a retired Australian engineer with 40 years experience with a variety of energy/electricity projects. In a report entitled, "Cost and Quantity of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Avoided by Wind Generation", http://carbon-sense.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/wind-power.pdf Lang concludes that: "1. Wind power does not avoid significant amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. 2. Wind power is a very high cost way to avoid greenhouse gas emissions. 3. Wind power, even with high capacity penetration, can not make a significant contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions."
21 Also see results of UK study commissioned by the Renewable Energy Foundation: http://www.4ecotips.com/eco/article_show.php?aid=1789&id=279 The full study can be found at: http://www.wind-watch.org/documents/wp-content/uploads/oswald-energy-policy-2008.pdf
22 A report by Yves Gagnon can be found at: http://eco-efficiency.management.dal.ca/Files/NSREC/NSREC_-_Synthesis_Paper_Final_Yves_Gagnon_-_December_2009.pdf
23 http://www.wind-watch.org/news/2010/07/21/new-brunswick-nova-scotia-to-improve-grid/

Bruce Wark adds: It is interesting what Shear Wind has to say about the Glen Dhu project resulting in GHG emissions reductions. At Shear Wind's open house that I attended last January in Antigonish County, the company had a display board listing "Local Benefits of the Glen Dhu Wind Farm". The final point on the board read: "Environmentally Sustainable project that plays a significant part in Nova Scotia's goal to reduce greenhouse gas." The company also made the following statement in a newsletter it circulated to households in Baileys Brook in the fall of 2008: "At the local level, by hosting a wind farm, the local communities around the proposed Shear Wind farm will be making their own essential contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions." But when the Eco Awareness Society asked Shear Wind to explain specifically how its project would reduce GHG emissions in Nova Scotia and to quantify the reductions that could be reasonably expected, the company gave this written response in its December 2009---January 2010 newsletter: "Wind energy is recognized as a part of Nova Scotia government's goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). This is cited in both the Nova Scotia 2009 Energy Strategy and the 'interim report to stakeholders' (Dec, 2009) led by David Wheeler. Shear Wind is proud to be a significant contributor to Nova Scotia's Wind energy plan. Metrics are available from other studies." In one of the documents it submitted to the environmental assessment process, the company said that since Nova Scotia Power has sole discretion over the use of wind power on the grid, GHG emissions reductions were outside the scope of Shear Wind's responsibility. In other words, the company seems happy to claim that the Glen Dhu project will contribute significantly to GHG emissions reductions, but it has consistently refused to support that statement with any facts or projections.


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