KENTVILLE — With growing pressure to find alternative sources of energy, some rural municipalities are struggling to set guidelines for the location of large-scale wind turbines.
"It seems there is a lot of resentment to them . . . . People say they are unsightly and noisy. But we’ve got to do something. We can’t keep depending on fossil fuels," Kings County Warden Fred Whalen said Thursday.
The NDP government has set a goal of 40 per cent of the province’s electricity coming from renewable resources by 2020.
While some municipalities have bylaws governing the placement of wind turbines, allowing for several wind farms to be developed in the province, others, such as Kings County, are trying to catch up.
"It has taken us awhile to get it together because we wanted to do it right, so I know we’re not as far ahead as some of the other municipalities," the warden said. "We’re trying to come up with a comprehensive policy. . . . We’d want to put them as far away from residential areas as possible.
"Whatever we do with it, we will certainly do it through a public process so residents have an opportunity to have input."
Studies show many good sites in Kings County, especially on North Mountain, and county staff have been studying the issue for some time.
"Now that we’ve gotten this far on it, we will be looking at companies that want to come in and build them," the warden said.
"Once they make their applications, we would have to go through the process of (locating) them."
Annapolis County is also struggling to get a policy.
It passed an interim bylaw in March that would allow development in a sparsely populated area on the South Mountain.
Warden Peter Newton said the bylaw allows small residential windmills and is not intended to shut out large-scale development, but will give council time to get its policy right.
But proponents, who want the economic benefits, say developers are more interested in the North Mountain.
Kings County has scheduled two meetings to get input. They will be held at the Aylesford firehall on June 23 and the Canning firehall on June 24. Both begin at 7 p.m. and will be preceded by a 5 p.m. open house.
1 comment:
We are on the right track.
http://www.ewae.org/fileadmin/ewea_documents/documents/reports/MeritOrder.pdf
John McManua
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