This month (November 2006) there have been two meetings in Pugwash with two different wind power companies. Both were held at St Thomas More Roman Catholic church hall. Both meetings suffered from publicity malfunctions, the first far worse than the latter.
3rd November 2006
The first meeting was with Scotian Wind Fields (SWF). The company is subdivided into eight regional companies. The one for this area (The Cumberland Wind Field Inc) is holding community meetings looking for community financial support. There were six from the parent and regional company and three in the audience. Those three would be: a man and woman who had travelled from Truro, and me.
The company claimed they had done broad and intensive print, radio and cable publicity, but no one I have spoken to since has ever heard of them or their meeting. The only reason I had heard of it was from intensive searching online for information on wind farms. There had been a parparticularly vigorous batch of new rumours in September/October about an imminent wind farm in the area and, wanting to get to the bottom of it, I found out about this meeting.
Despite the pitiful numbers, and with the particular encouragement from the two from Truro, the presentation was given anyway.
It was a sales pitch.
Scotian wind fields is looking for investors. Each turbine requires an investment of $1.8million. They had a powerpoint presentation, handouts, displays and were open to many questions from the floor. Some of the information I obtained that evening is included in yesterday's blog. Not yet mentioned:
There is quite the procedure to go through before any windmill or farm can happen. These phases all have to happen, but their timeline can overlap substantially.
Land acquisition, generally by lease
Resource analysis using a meteorological tower.
Environmental work - assessment and research.
Interconnection - request, studies and permit to connect to the grid.
Permitting & Public Consultation - federal/provincial/municipal permits and open house or information distribution.
Secure equipment - order the actual machine. None is made in Canada.
Construction - foundations, electrical, raise tower and install blades.
Commissioning
There was some discussion about the meteorological tower that has been in operation behind "Brogans" on the Gulf Shore for the last two years. Studies generally take 12-18 months. SWF denied it was theirs and we speculated for a while as to whom it belonged.
After two hours, I had gleaned some information, but still nothing about this particular area. Outside the hall, the two from Truro called me over to their vehicle and identified themselves to be from the company who does own the meteorological tower on the Gulf Shore, Atlantic Wind Power Corporation (AWPC). He told me they were there to listen to their competitor's presentation and that there was to be a meeting with AWPC Nov 21st at the Village Commission building. He also told me they would be doing some more effective publicity, including a mail-out.
I can only assume that the meeting was later moved to the church hall as it is a bigger venue.
The mail out happened, in some areas. At least one ad in a local publication malfunctioned. I actually did some advertising for them by emailing people in the area and had CBC on PEI do an announcement the morning of Nov 21st.
Some might think that that was tantamount to shooting myself in the foot, given my point of view. However, any personal feelings I have about wind turbines or wind farms are superseded by my belief in full disclosure. I completely believe that people should have the opportunity to get as much information about this or any other project and thus come to an informed opinion.
21st November 2006
Atlantic Wind Power Corporation's meeting was advertised to be from 6-9pm. When I got there at about 6:15pm, there was already a good sized crowd. There was a very nicely presented display of photographs of the process of construction and some information about bird and plant studies. There was a fairly short video shown in a loop. There was a large buffet of cold cuts, cheese, veggies, fruit, tea, coffee, water and pop. There were at least five people from AWPC (including the two from Truro) circulating around the crowd. About 120 people attended in total.
This was also a sales pitch.
After some chatting with neighbours and viewing some of the displays, I was introduced to Charles Demond, president of AWPC. He came across as being a very pleasant man, passionate about his project. He was very open to discussing anything I had to say or ask about, but I was wishing the other people in the room could have been privy to our discussion.
This was my primary problem with this meeting/presentation/exhibit - there was no room for an open forum, no question time to raise awareness in those who haven't spent the hours and hours I have in research. I was disappointed the meeting was just a one-way street, with no room for publicly asked difficult questions.
The only handouts were about the Vista V82 turbines they want to use. The only reason we have a picture of the map to refer to is because I snapped a photo of the map on display. The map was hard to read because shoreline landmarks were not included. I later worked out the dimensions mentioned in yesterday's blog with the help of GoogleEarth. Yesterday's picture was cropped and given notations using Paint Shop Pro. This is the original, untouched picture. However, I was given, on loan, a copy of the noise study done by Howe Gastmeier Chapnik Limited (HGC) for Natural Resources Canada (see yesterday's blog). I mailed it back yesterday. A considerable problem with this particular copy was that it did not include any of the figures or diagrams that illustrate the study.
One of the many questions I asked was why this meeting was held so late in the year, considering that half to two thirds of the Gulf Shore population has moved to HRM for the winter. Mr Dumond said that they were only just now ready with their data to start having meetings, but he looked forward to meeting with cottagers. He didn't suggest when that would be.
After at least an hour of conversation with Mr Dumond, I had to pry myself away from our interesting discourse and beat a retreat, with a raging sore throat, to the cool of outside. Consequently, I missed viewing some of the materials on display.
22nd November 2006
I had heard a rumour that AWPC was going to make a presentation to County Council the day after their presentation to the community of Pugwash, so off I went the next day to Amherst. There was no presentation on the agenda, so I didn't stay for the meeting, but I did get to talk briefly to the County Planner who had some interesting information concerning zoning.
Currently, Cumberland County does not have any by-laws regarding zoning of wind turbines and their "set-back" from any dwelling or property. The first draft will be presented to the County next week. Fingers crossed that set-back will be considerably further than the 500m AWPC proposes!
Neither the County nor I have heard from AWPC since last week.
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