Country Guardian

Country Guardian http://www.countryguardian.net/ is "is a UK conservation group which, since 1991, has campaigned against the construction of wind turbines in environmentally sensitive areas. We object because wind turbines convert rural landscape into industrial landscape, and because they are a poor source of renewable energy."

That being said, there is some good information to be had on their web site, particularly their 54 page "The case against windfarms" file by independent consultant, Dr John Etherington. It is a good all round "starter kit" on basic information to do with wind energy. The references are primarily British, but the principals remain the same, wherever you are.

The direct .pdf address link does not seem to work. Go to http://www.countryguardian.net/Case%20document.htm
and click on "click to download the ADOBE version...."

You can get there from the home page too.

France moves turbines back

Sarkozy announces new wind turbine policy

Industrial wind turbine development to end in rural and wild areas.

The Sustainable Environment Federation (FED), with the heritage and countryside associations who demonstrated in Paris on October 6 against industrial wind energy, are pleased by President Sarkozy’s redirection of French policy concerning wind turbines and renewable energy.

In his comments at the closure of the « Grenelle de l’environnement », the president of the republic announced the end of the « rush » that has characterized French policy on wind turbines up to now and that ultimately means degradation of the environment. New wind turbines will be installed first in brownfields and far from emblematic locales.

In an improvisation that was not in the prepared text provided to the press, M. Sarkozy turned to José-Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, and added : « Frankly, when I see some European countries, it doesn’t make me envious ».

The president of the republic also announced acceleration of research into energies of the future.

This new policy marks the end of industrial wind turbine installations in rural and wild areas. This is a relief for the 800 villages and 52 departments represented in the October 6 demonstration. It is also a powerful contribution to the image of France and shows Europe that an energy policy can reconcile the fight against global warming and respect for the countryside and every life.

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The 1500 demonstrators on October 6 brought six demands. Many of them have been accepted : publicize the true numbers of wind energy development (M. Borloo [environment minister] has committed to this), protect public health from wind turbine nuisance, protect the cultural and natural heritage of France, restore peace in the villages, commit to an effective energy strategy.

The sixth concerns the financial scandal of the price of wind-generated electricity. The highly elevated price encourages the production of intermittent energy which does not promote the reduction of greenhouse gases. It will lead to speculative pressure for the few areas in France that meet the criteria of the new policy.

Just as the president announced that the policy of supporting biofuels will be reviewed, price support for wind turbines needs to be reviewed.

http://www.wind-watch.org/news/2007/11/06/sarkozy-announces-new-wind-turbine-policy/

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"Brownfields" are areas zoned specifically for industrial farming use only. No wind turbines in residential areas or forests.

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If your French is up to it, here's the link to Sarkozy's entire speech:

http://environnementdurable.net/documents/html/grenelle-sarkozy.htm

Another site

While away the hours waiting for news from NSPI at this interesting site.

http://windfarms.wordpress.com/

I will work at permanently posting links to other interesting sites here.

no news from NSPI

The latest "information" on the NSPI site http://oasis.nspower.ca/documents/GIP_Queue_003.pdf is exactly the same as last week's.

Higgins Mountain

Just got home from a meeting at the Wentworth Fire Hall where there was a presentation, to about 40 people, about the Higgins Mountain project. The presentation was the same as what was recently given to the Folly Lake Residents Association (or similar named group) by one of the long time seasonal residents. He made a very good job of presenting the project, process, pros and cons in as balanced a manner as one could expect.

It would seem the folk of Wentworth/Westchester/Folly Lake are not of such fulsome praise of this project as we have been led to believe.

Again, the cry is all for wind power, but the one of the main concerns is of "siting". The turbines for this project are not neatly tucked away out of sight as we have been told, but march along the top of the ridge and sometimes quite close to Highway 4.

Modeling of shadow flicker for Ski Wentworth present a (potentially dangerous) degree of flicker.

The local people asked many intelligent questions. There was a rep from CBCL who answered many questions. MLAs Murray Scott and Karen Casey were there, as was Councilor Kathy Redmond, a councilor from Colchester County, reps from CREDA and other local Associations (for once I didn't have my note book with me - sorry). No media.

I came home to an e-mail claiming we should hear from NSPI tomorrow.

IRQ latest

The most recent IRQ http://oasis.nspower.ca/documents/QUEUE_Oct25_2007_000.pdf now posts the Pugwash site status as "Impact Study Agrmnt tendered by customer"

All sites below Pugwash on the list have the same status as Pugwash with the exceptions of:

• Higgins Mountain (Feasibility study complete)
• 70MW Cumberland County (Interconnection request valid)
• 10MW Richmond County (Feasibility study in progress)
• 50MW Halifax - steam turbine (Interconnection request valid)

#79 in Antigonish has dropped off the list.

The six projects ahead of Pugwash are variously listed as "generator interconnection agreement tender" (#8 Guysborough), "Impact/optional study in progress"or "feasibility study complete".

NS Power - Interconnection Request Queue

We are still waiting for an announcement from Nova Scotia Power Inc (NSPI) as to whose applications towards their Request for Proposals (RFP) have been accepted. This morning I finally got a direct response from NSPI simply saying they do not "have any further information to provide at this time, as the formal evaluation process is not yet complete".

However, after fixing a computer glitch, I have found some interesting information from their most recent Interconnection Request Queue (IRQ).

There have been some changes since I started printing off current IRQs, which I now see appear to be updated every two weeks or so. So far, I do not see where older reports are archived.

I was given copies for March 30th and May 7th and, since finding the correct site, now have reports dated Sept 19th, Sept 27th and Oct 16th (http://oasis.nspower.ca/documents/QUEUE_Oct16_2007.pdf).

March 30th's IRQ had 23 sites offering 1459 MW of power. Pugwash site (ID# 56) listing for 60 MW power and status "Feasibility Study in Progress" and 9th in the queue.

May 7th has 32 sites offering 1887 MW

(August 31st - closing date for RFP for 130 MW power)

Sept 19th lists 34 sites offering 1917 MW. Pugwash site status: "Feasibility Study Complete" and now 8th in the queue.

Sept 27th lists 34 sites offering 1870.4 MW. Pugwash site now listed as offering 34 MW power. (Property where 9 turbines were planned was sold).

Oct 16th lists 26 sites offering 1398 MW. Pugwash site status: "Interconnection Request Withdrawl Pending"

All the sites that have dropped off the October list since September were previously listed as having status "Interconnection Request Withdrawl Pending". There were others with the same status in September but are now listed "Interconnection request Valid" (Higgins Mountain), "Feasibility Study Complete" (ID#46, Colchester Co, ID# 84 Pictou Co)) or "Impact Study in Progress" (ID# 67 Annapolis Co).

The only other sites that have downgraded from "Feasibility Study Complete" to "Interconnection Request Withdrawl Pending" is one in Colchester County (ID# 82) and one for Amherst (ID# 128)

In May, the first 18 sites in the queue are listed as "Feasibility Study in Progress" or "Complete" and all but site #100 (which was 21st and is now no longer listed at all) were listed as "Interconnection Request Valid". Many of these have since dropped off the list or are now listed ""Interconnection Request Withdrawl Pending".

What all this means is not entirely clear. The definitions used by NSPI seems to have changed somewhat over time.

What it looks like is that the Pugwash site is no longer being offered to NSPI. This could be for any number of reasons, but it does not necessarily mean the project has been abandoned. It could just mean they are looking for a different customer - one which is not so fussy about where they get their power and how it affects the local people

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It is quite a convoluted process to find this queue list. A long time ago I was given the impression that this was not publicly available. It is, but you need to know how to find it.

To find current IRQs go to the NSPI site http://www.nspower.ca then do a search for "OASIS". Click on the first search result: "Nova Scotia Power - About NSPI - Transmission & Distribution - Grid Interconnections" which takes you to
http://www.nspower.ca/about_nspi/t_d/grid_interconnections.shtml Look at the menu on the right and click on "Open Access Same Time Information System (OASIS)" The menu on the left has "System Reports and Messages" The next page middle section headed "System Reports" has "Generation Interconnection Queue" listed at the bottom. That opens a .pdf file with the current IRQ (http://oasis.nspower.ca/documents/QUEUE_Oct16_2007.pdf). In an attempt to avoid this long route in, I tried going backwards and then on the IRQ link again. This only took me back to the previous IRQ (Sept 27th) but not to the most recent.