(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.
No comments:
Post a Comment