Pictou County wind farm produces more power than expected

Shear Wind’s Glen Dhu wind farm has better-than-expected turbine performance

October 26, 2011 - 8:04pm BRETT BUNDALE Business Reporter

The president and CEO of Shear Wind Inc. is optimistic about expanding the Glen Dhu wind farm after better-than-expected turbine performance in its first six months of operation.

Mike Magnus said the 62-megawatt Pictou County wind farm, in operation since the end of March, has surpassed earlier expectations and is producing more power than expected.

“We’re pleasantly surprised and pleased on the performance of the turbines themselves and, more importantly, their ability to capture the energy of the wind,” he said in an interview from Shear Wind’s Dartmouth office.

“It’s pretty early to tell, but we’ve been experiencing upward of 10 per cent better performance than what we had looked at. In this business, 10 per cent is a big number.”

While Magnus declined to put a dollar figure on the stellar performance, he said “it helps us pay down our debt 10 per cent quicker.”

The Glen Dhu wind farm is made up of 27 giant turbines on about 10,000 acres of windswept hills east of New Glasgow.

The wind farm, which has a 20-year power purchase agreement with Nova Scotia Power Inc., produces enough energy to power 18,000 homes.

However, the site has the potential to produce 230 megawatts — about three times its present capacity.

“Phase 2 of the Glen Dhu site looks very, very promising,” Magnus said. “We know the wind regime there and we’ve got very significant infrastructure that we’ve already invested in, so we’re very optimistic about extending the current site.”

Unlike Cape Breton wind farms that have been hobbled by traffic jams on the grid coming out of the Strait of Canso, transmission lines with extra space transect the Glen Dhu site.

Shear Wind is also eyeing another site in the Parrsboro area of Cumberland County that has features similar to the Pictou County site.

The energy company has been measuring winds in Parrsboro since June and early results “indicate it’s going to be a very good site,” he said.

The province’s renewable energy administrator is expected to issue a request for proposals for renewable energy projects this December, with proposals due by March. John Dalton, the independent administrator for the province, is expected to approve the next round of wind projects by late spring.

Projects will be evaluated and scored on a range of costs and other factors, such as nearby transmission capacity.

While Magnus said Shear Wind’s projects have a strong business case, he noted that there is increasing competition in the wind energy market.

“We feel pretty good about where we sit right now, but there has been more competition. There are a number of outside interests being expressed, but at the end of the day, I think localized entities such as Shear Wind that have made a lot of investment in this province to develop sites to an advanced stage are at an advantage.”

The better-than-expected performance of the Glen Dhu wind farm is proof of the tremendous renewable resource in Nova Scotia and the need for continued investments in areas such as transmission capacity, he said.

“There is a very rich resource here in Nova Scotia. We’ve got a tremendous resource, and like any other resource like oil and gas, there has got to be continued investment in getting that source of energy to market.”

Jean-Francois Nolet with the Canadian Wind Energy Association said given that Atlantic Canada has some of the best wind resources in the country, he is not surprised to hear the Glen Dhu farm is performing better than predicted.

But he said the performance of wind farms needs to be examined over a longer period of time before making assumptions.

“This is good news, but wind resources can fluctuate from year to year, so we need to cautious before jumping to any conclusions.”

Shear Wind owns 51 per cent of Glen Dhu wind farm and Inveravante Inversiones Universales, S.L., through Genera Avante Holdings Canada Inc., owns 49 per cent.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/27307-pictou-county-wind-farm-produces-more-power-expected

Group seeks wind farm bonds

Developers would show ‘integrity’
By GORDON DELANEY Valley Bureau
Wed, Oct 12 - 4:53 AM

A group in Annapolis County wants to ensure potential wind farm developers — and not taxpayers — are on the hook for the costs of decommissioning turbines.

"Any company coming here, if they are serious . . . should have the integrity to put a bond in place to protect the landowner and the County of Annapolis," Steve Lewis, spokesman for Friends for Responsibility for the Economy and Energy, said recently.

The municipality’s draft wind turbine bylaw, expected to come before council for second reading on Tuesday, does not require a bond or have any protection for taxpayers, he said. As a result, it could leave them paying the decommissioning costs for wind farms in 20 years, the average life span of a turbine.

"So we’re just saying (to council), ‘Slow down, let’s look at this a bit longer,’ " Lewis said.

He stressed that he’s not opposed to wind farm development.

"We want economic development but only if it will not put landowners and taxpayers at financial risk and is of economic benefit to the majority of county citizens," Lewis wrote in a letter to Annapolis County Warden Reg Ritchie.

Lewis also said landowners who allow large-scale wind turbine developments on their land may not be aware of their financial obligations. The cost of decommissioning one large-scale wind turbine could be as much as $100,000, he said.

The county has been working on a wind turbine bylaw for more than a year, as companies seek to develop wind farms in the region, including a large one on North Mountain, near Bridgetown. Lewis wants the county to send the bylaw back to the planning advisory committee for more study.

Under the Municipal Government Act, the county can seek a security or performance bond through a development agreement or through "conditional use" zoning, said Peter McInroy, a Musquodoboit Harbour lawyer hired by Lewis’s group.

But municipalities are reluctant to make that requirement for fear that developers will walk away, said Lewis.

Gregory Heming, a citizen member of the county’s planning advisory committee that studied the issue, is encouraging the county to slow down and get its bylaw right.

"The provincial government set these energy targets and then turned it loose on municipal governments to figure out how that’s going to work, without any guidelines," said Heming, who has a doctorate in ecology, specializing in community development.

Warden Reg Ritchie could not be reached for comment by deadline Tuesday.

Proposed areas for wind-resource zones in the county include Parker Mountain Road, Victoria Beach and Hampton Hills on North Mountain and Spectacle Lake on South Mountain.

A $60-million, 12-turbine wind farm by Sprott Power Corp. of Toronto is proposed for Hampton Hills, about four kilometres north of Bridgetown.

Sprott is renewing building permits it held for properties in Arlington, Arlington West and Hampton. In April, the company asked Nova Scotia Supreme Court to overrule a municipal decision denying the renewal.

Annapolis County announced recently it was changing its planning strategy to allow Sprott to proceed with most of the turbines.

The county’s draft bylaw may be viewed on the municipality’s website at www.annapoliscounty.ns.ca.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1267996.html

Ontario wind power bringing down property values

By John Nicol and Dave Seglins, CBC News

Posted: Oct 1, 2011 6:56 AM ET

Ontario's rapid expansion in wind power projects has provoked a backlash from rural residents living near industrial wind turbines who say their property values are plummeting and they are unable to sell their homes, a CBC News investigation has found.

The government and the wind energy industry have long maintained turbines have no adverse effects on property values, health or the environment.

The CBC has documented scores of families who've discovered their property values are not only going downward, but also some who are unable to sell and have even abandoned their homes because of concerns nearby turbines are affecting their health.

"I have to tell you not a soul has come to look at it," says Stephana Johnston, 81, of Clear Creek, a hamlet on the north shore of Lake Erie about 60 kilometres southeast of London.

Johnston, a retired Toronto teacher, moved here six years ago to build what she thought would be her dream home. But in 2008, 18 industrial wind turbines sprung up near her property and she put the one-floor, wheelchair-accessible home up for sale.

"My hunch is that people look at them and say: 'As nice as the property is going south, looking at the lake, we don't want to be surrounded by those turbines.' Can't say that I blame them."

Johnston says she has suffered so many ill health effects, including an inability to sleep — which she believes stem from the noise and vibration of the turbines— that she now sleeps on a couch in her son's trailer, 12 kilometres away, and only returns to her house to eat breakfast and dinner and use the internet.

Industry rejects claims of lower land values

Meanwhile, the industry rejects claims of lower land values.

"Multiple studies, and particularly some very comprehensive ones from the United States have consistently shown the presence of wind turbines does not have any statistically significant impact on property values," says Robert Hornung of the Ottawa-based Canadian Wind Energy Association (CANWEA).

While acknowledging a lack of peer-reviewed studies in Ontario, Hornung says CANWEA commissioned a study of the Chatham-Kent area, where new wind turbines are appearing, and found no evidence of any impact on property values.

"In fact," says Hornung, "we've recently seen evidence coming from Re/Max indicating that we're seeing farm values throughout Ontario, including the Chatham-Kent area, increasing significantly this year as wind energy is being developed in the area at the same time."

However, Ron VandenBussche, a Re/Max agent along the Lake Erie shore, said the reality is that the wind turbines reduce the pool of interested buyers, and ultimately the price of properties.

"It's going to make my life more difficult," says VandenBussche, who has been a realtor for 38 years. "There's going to be people that would love to buy this particular place, but because the turbines are there, it's going to make it more difficult, no doubt."

Kay Armstrong is one example. She put her two-acre, waterfront property up for sale before the turbines appeared in Clear Creek, for what three agents said was a reasonable price of $270,000.

Two years after the turbines appeared, she took $175,000, and she felt lucky to do that — the property went to someone who only wanted to grow marijuana there for legal uses.

"I had to get out," said Armstrong. "It was getting so, so bad. And I had to disclose the health issues I had. I was told by two prominent lawyers that I would be sued if the ensuing purchasers were to develop health problems."

Realtor association finds 20 to 40 per cent drops in value

Armstrong's experience is backed up in a study by Brampton-based realtor Chris Luxemburger. The president of the Brampton Real Estate Board examined real estate listings and sales figures for the Melancthon-Amaranth area, home to 133 turbines in what is Ontario's first and largest industrial wind farm.

"Homes inside the windmill zones were selling for less and taking longer to sell than the homes outside the windmill zones," said Luxemburger.

On average, from 2007 to 2010, he says properties adjacent to turbines sold for between 20 and 40 per cent less than comparable properties that were out of sight from the windmills.

Power company sells at a loss

Land registry documents obtained by CBC News show that some property owners who complained about noise and health issues and threatened legal action did well if they convinced the turbine companies to buy them out.

Canadian Hydro Developers bought out four different owners for $500,000, $350,000, $305,000 and $302,670. The company then resold each property, respectively, for $288,400, $175,000, $278,000 and $215,000.

In total, Canadian Hydro absorbed just over half a million dollars in losses on those four properties.

The new buyers were required to sign agreements acknowledging that the wind turbine facilities may affect the buyer's "living environment" and that the power company will not be responsible for or liable from any of the buyer's "complaints, claims, demands, suits, actions or causes of action of every kind known or unknown which may arise directly or indirectly from the Transferee's wind turbine facilities."

The energy company admits the impacts may include "heat, sound, vibration, shadow flickering of light, noise (including grey noise) or any other adverse effect or combination thereof resulting directly or indirectly from the operation."

TransAlta, the company that took over for Canadian Hydro, refused to discuss the specific properties it bought and then resold at a loss in Melancthon. But in an email to CBC, spokesman Glen Whelan cited the recession and other "business considerations" that "influence the cost at which we buy or sell properties, and to attribute purchase or sale prices to any one factor would be impossible."

Province says no change to tax base

Ontario's ministers of Energy, Municipal Affairs and Finance, all in the midst of an election campaign, declined requests for an interview.

A spokesperson for Municipal Affairs says his ministry has no studies or information about the potential impact wind turbines are having on rural property values.

However, last February, before an environmental review tribunal in Chatham, Environment Ministry lawyer Frederika Rotter said: "We will see in the course of this hearing that lots of people are worried about windmills. They may not like the noise, they may think the noise makes them sick, but really what makes them sick is just the windmills being on the land because it does impact their property values.

"That's what makes them sick is that, you know, they'll get less money for their properties, and that's what's causing all this annoyance and frustration and all of that."

When Energy Minister Brad Duguid declined comment, his staff referred CBC News to the Ministry of Finance, which oversees MPAC (the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation), which sets values on land for taxation purposes. They indicated that MPAC has no evidence wind turbines are driving down assessed values.

However, CBC found one household in Melancthon was awarded a 50-per-cent reduction in property tax because the house sat next to a transformer station for the turbines.

Losing the rural life

Almost all the people interviewed by the CBC rue the division between neighbours for and against the turbines, and said what they have lost is a sense of home and the idyllic life of living in the countryside.

Tracy Whitworth, who has a historic home in Clear Creek, refuses to sell it and instead has become a nomad, renting from place to place with her son, to avoid the ill effects of the turbines.

"My house sits empty — it's been vandalized," says Whitworth, a Clear Creek resident who teaches high school in Delhi. "I've had a couple of 'Stop the wind turbine' signs knocked down, mailbox broken off.

"I lived out there for a reason. It was out in the country. School's very busy. When I come home, I like peace and quiet. Now, we have the turbines and the noise. Absolutely no wildlife. I used to go out in the morning, tend to my dogs, let my dogs run, and I'd hear the geese go over.

"And ugh! Now there's no deer, no geese, no wild turkeys. Nothing."

For the octogenarian Johnston, the fight is all more than she bargained for. She sank all her life savings, about $500,000, into the house, and she says she does not have the money to be able to hire a lawyer to fight for a buyout. But she is coming to the conclusion she must get a mortgage to try the legal route.

"I love being near the water and I thought, what a way to spend the rest of my days — every view is precious," she said, as tears filled her eyes. "And I would not have that any more.

"And that is hard to reconcile and accept."

Getting a mortgage on her house might not be that easy. CBC News has learned that already one bank in the Melancthon area is not allowing lines of credit to be secured by houses situated near wind turbines. In a letter to one family situated close to the turbines, the bank wrote, "we find your property a high risk and its future marketability may be jeopardized."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/09/30/ontario-wind-power-property-values.html#.TobyvN2TMUM.mailto