Posts Tagged ‘Guildwood Wind Farm’
Toronto Observer: Green energy bill angers Guildwood residents
The Toronto Observer’s Tevy Pilc wrote a piece on the impacts of the proposed Green Energy Act on Scarborough Bluffs residents. As with all Green Energy Act and Toronto Hydro Energy Services stuff related to the proposed offshore wind farm in Scarborough – I have opted to post it here.
The Toronto Observer serves the communities of East Scarborough communities including Guildwood. For their website click here. http://www.torontoobserver.ca
Green energy bill angers Guildwood residents
Residents of Guildwood may be seeing red after the release of Ontario’s new Green Energy Act. The act may reduce the input they have with the province in negotiating environmental developments in the area.
Unveiled on Feb. 23, the act will introduce fixed prices for electricity generated from renewable sources. It will also establish efficiency standards for appliances and require homeowners to conduct energy audits before selling their houses.
“The city doesn’t have any control over these issues,” said Ward 43 councillor Paul Ainslie, who supports the act environmentally but is concerned for his residents’ say in the matter.
Some Guildwood residents like John Laforet, an activist with the Save theToronto Bluffs group, say they are displeased with the act.
Laforet called it “one of the most undemocratic pieces of legislature [sic] in the past decades.”
“These proposed projects are unprecedented based on other world examples of offshore wind projects. Ontario has some of the weakest legislation when it comes to calculating the adverse effects of these projects that require environmental assessments, which the province wants to remove,” Laforet says.
One of the issues regards the Scarborough Bluffs, where the province andToronto Hydro have proposed projects for wind turbine systems. Ainslie says the bluffs are under provincial jurisdiction, so it’s already difficult to get much out of negotiations, especially with Toronto Hydro, which normally relays that information to residents.
“Toronto Hydro says it wants a public process. It wants feedback if residents want an anemometer for wind testing, not wind turbines. If the testing is successful, that will lead to an environmental assessment for wind turbines, which my residents don’t want,” said Ainslie. “But now the province is saying they want wind turbines in Scarborough, and if wind testing works, they can go straight to wind turbines and skip the environmental assessment..”
Ainslie said his residents get a bad rap in Toronto because the bluffs are in his ward as are most of the protesters against the turbines.
“We have to be transparent about this process. Residents are concerned about how the process works regarding all the development, and now the province comes out with this like-it-or-lump-it attitude.
Ainslie said he found it funny when energy minister George Smitherman said that the act is designed to stop NIMBYs like his residents when it didn’t really involve them. “I’ve always said we have residents who are for it, against it, but mostly those who don’t know much about what’s going on.”
Ainslie says some of the concerns his residents have expressed include effects on property values, migratory birds, monarch butterflies, bats, the aesthetics of the turbines and economics surrounding their building.
Laforet said he agrees with the councillor on the lack of awareness of the issues, stressing residents should read the bill because it will have a major impact on their ability to take part in decision-making.
1 Comment »
Watch Goldhawk Live – Tomorrow at 7pm
Goldhawk Live tomorrow night is shaping up to quite the event. You’ll have Franz Hartmann, – Executive Director of the Toronto Environmental Alliance, which has a “My Toronto Includes Windmills” Campaign going, Kristopher Stevens – Executive Director of the Ontario Sustainable Energy Assocation (a founding member of the Green Energy Act Alliance), Jim Prall – a University of Toronto lecturer on Climate Change and John Laforet – me.
I say with some certainty it should make for an interesting viewing experience. Tune in on Rogers Cable at 7pm.
Below is the Goldhawk blurb on tomorrow’s show.
Should the Ontario government build a wind farm in the Scarborough Bluffs? Acclaimed journalist Dale Goldhawk takes calls and debates this issue with guest experts:
Franz Hartmann, Executive Director, Toronto Environmental Alliance, Kristopher Stevens, Executive Director, Ontario Sustainable Energy Association, Jim Prall, University of Toronto and Community activist John Laforet.
Tune in on Wednesday February 25th at 7 PM and tell us what you think. Viewers are encouraged to call 416.446.7090 and express their opinions or ask the panel questions.
Goldhawk LIVE airs Monday thru Thursday at 7PM, exclusively on Rogers TV, Cable 10 in Toronto and 63 in Scarborough.
For complete broadcast details, please visit www.rogerstv.com
4 Comments »Does Premier McGuinty Really Support Spending $660 Million to Create 200 Temporary Construction Jobs?
Let’s face it, on a project that no wind expert to date thinks is going to be economically viable. And to think, a few days ago $24 Million spent on lawyers looked bad. Based on reasonable calculations, it can be expected that the proposed offshore wind turbines in Scarborough will lose a collective $310 million bucks over 20 years.
Want to challenge my facts? Call me names? Just read this first.
“He’s counting on the (Green Energy) act, of which few details have been released, to help create 50,000 jobs over the next three years and boost the amount of renewable energy feeding into the electricity grid to fight climate change.” McGuinty Vows to Stop Wind-Farm NIMBYists – Toronto Star February 11th 2009.
“Taking a swipe at those who oppose wind turbines off the Scarborough Bluffs, Premier Dalton McGuinty is signalling he won’t hesitate to foist “green” energy projects on communities across Ontario.” McGuinty Vows to Stop Wind-Farm NIMBYists – Toronto Star February 11th 2009.
OK – So the Premier took a shot at Scarborough, an area with six Liberal MPPS and three who represent the Scarborough Bluffs area.He forgets that Scarborough is the City’s pioneer in waste diversion and has fought harder to preserve the environment than anywhere else in the City. The Premier suggests his Green Energy Act will create 50 000 jobs by ending our democratic right to oppose bad government decisions and by stripping already non existent environmental controls.
Basically the Toronto Hydro Energy Services project team, led by Joyce McLean, did such a horrible job at responding to community concerns they lost control of the project and needed McGuinty to step in and use his position to dismantle well established democratic freedoms for force the project through to create these 50 000 jobs so called ‘NIMBYists’ were holding up.
Let’s look at the economics of the Toronto Hydro Energy Services plan and use facts from the Premier’s mouth, PACE Global Energy Services – an independent consultant on the proposed cancelled Long Island offshore wind farm, and Toronto Hydro Energy Services to figure out the economic impact.
First though some background. PACE was hired to look at the economic feasibility of an offshore wind farm off of Long Island. They ultimately concluded it was an economic no go, but in the process provided a methodology for determining the cost of offshore wind in North America. They pointed out a few interesting facts like “GE is the likely supplier of these off-shore wind turbines, but no turbine supplier is well mobilized to provide offshore turbines to the North American market.” (Page 7, Assessment of Offshore Power Resources, August 2007)
“Pace Global reviewed the cost estimates provided by FPLE. The cost of the wind farm alone is $5,231 per kW, while LIPA’s underwater cable and on-shore substation upgrade costs elevate the project’s costs to $5,634 per kW.” (Page 1, Assessment of Offshore Power Resources, August 2007)
Although the higher figure is probably more accurate, let’s use the lower figure to limit the room for folks who trash talk me to criticize me. — And let’s not forget the exchange rate.
“On 18 Feb 2009, 5231 U.S. dollar(s) = 6,588.97 Canadian dollar(s), at an exchange rate of 1.2596″ Bank of Canada Exchange Rate Calculator
“The goal, says Toronto Hydro chief executive Dave O’Brien, is to establish a 60-turbine offshore wind farm capable of generating 100 megawatts.” Hydro eyes new wind farm on Bluffs – Toronto Star June 25th 2008
There are 1000 kilowatts in a megawatt. There are 100 megawatts of capacity being proposed for this project putting the cost, conservatively at $658 897 000. That’s right. $660 Million dollars.
How many jobs does Toronto Hydro Energy Services think this will create? 200 short term jobs.
“Short-term employment of an estimated 200 construction jobs and long-term employment of skilled operators and maintainers.” Research Anemometer In Lake Ontario: Toronto Hydro Energy Services Oct 2008
Thats nearly $3.3 million per short term job created.
To create 50 000 jobs as the Premier would like to by ‘forcing’ communities to install poorly thought out wind projects like this, the Premier would have to spend $164 724 250 000. Yup. Over a $164 billion dollars.
So now someone is going to say ‘but the pay back, but the pay back’. Let’s pretend for a minute that the same folks who messed up with the Exhibition turbine (and who are running this project) don’t fail as badly as last time. Let’s pretend that instead of their pathetic 12% five year average output capacity they can match the 18% output capacity of the Pickering turbine. We’ll not use this opportunity to mention that these projects are bookends to the proposed offshore site, and that virtually all research indicates there isn’t adequate wind to meet the minimum viability thresholds or that neither of these will even pay back the original investment over twenty years.
At a twenty year (the length turbines last before needing to be replaced) output average of 18% (remember this is the highest output data we have for a project near this site), even before we factored in the cost of interest or maintenance the project would lose $309 478 120. That’s right, $310 Million. (This is based on the 11.08 cents per kWh rate Ontario buy’s wind power at.)
Wouldn’t it be smarter to do a full environmental review, to follow international standards for nature conservation and turbine siting, to consider all available data and save ourselves $310 million that can probably be better used doing virtually anything else? Call me NIMBY all you want, but if you think blowing $310 million bucks and doing untold damage to the environment because you were in such a rush to install a project without scientific or economic merit is a good idea, you’re not an environmentalist, you’re an idiot.
Once Again, I gladly invite Joyce McLean or anyone else at the Toronto Hydro Energy Services team to respond to any of the claims I’ve made here. This is a standing offer that has been in place for weeks now.
