When Liberal causes collide....

The Sound Guy

Pursuit Driver
Green Energy vs Save the Bats.... Really sucks that a US firm is involved and likely to loose their shirt over the project unless they can get paid for their expenses.

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Ontario cancels nearly-built $200M wind farm over threat to bat populations
About six of the turbines are fully built and another half-dozen have the towers erected. The project was to be finished in the first quarter of 2020.

Ontario’s Environment Minister has cancelled a $200-million wind farm south of Ottawa — one almost fully constructed — because the giant turbines pose a threat to nearby bat populations.

In a Dec. 4 letter, Minister Jeff Yurek said he’s revoking the approval given to the Nation Rise Wind Farm, which has already erected a number of the 29 planned turbines in a rural area near the villages of Crysler and Finch in the Township of North Stormont.

The surprising decision comes about seven months after construction began on the 100-megawatt project, proposed by EDP Renewables, a subsidiary of a multinational with North American headquarters in Texas.

Yurek wrote to Margaret Benke, an appellant and leading critic of Nation Rise, that he was concerned about the effect of 200-metre high turbines on colonies of Hoary bats and Big and Little Brown bats, the latter being listed on Ontario’s Species at Risk list.

“In my view, the harm will be both serious and irreversible to animal life given the relatively small bat species populations in the local area.”

The minister also said he has the authority to “confirm, alter or revoke” a January decision of the Environmental Review Tribunal “as I consider in the public interest.” He also said he had to consider the potential harm to the wildlife “in the context of the minimal contribution the project is likely to have on the electricity supply in Ontario.”

The wind farm had caused deep divisions in the community as the township had twice voted against being a “willing host” for the project.

While some 70 property owners were happy about leasing land to EDP, many others were concerned about noise, the visual disruption and the possible impacts on health and the water table in the area.

Benke is a founding member of the grassroots organization Concerned Citizens of North Stormont. She appealed the approval from the Review Tribunal, which had held nine days of hearings in the fall of 2018.

The retired principal, a lifelong resident of the area, said she had to read the Yurek letter twice to make sure she didn’t misunderstand the stunning outcome.

“I was thrilled,” she said Monday. “There is no real mitigation measure to protect the bats.” She’s been fighting the battle for more than four years and estimates Concerned Citizens has spent in excess of $100,000 to fight the plan.

EDP Renewables said it “strongly objects” to Yurek’s decision. It has, however, halted construction and is assessing “all potential legal actions” because the project was already approved by Yurek’s own’s ministry and ratified by the tribunal.

The Conservative government of Doug Ford — and the premier himself — have been critical of so-called industrial wind farms but this was the last one approved by the departing Liberal government in May 2018, only days before the election writ was dropped.

In July 2018, only weeks after taking office, the Ford government nixed the Green Energy Act and cancelled 758 early-stage renewable-energy projects.

EDP says the project has created more than 230 construction jobs and, over the next 30 years, would pump some $45 million into the local economy through municipal taxes, a community benefit fund, charitable contributions and landowner fees. It has already built a network of roads and laid a great deal of electrical cable in the area.

Since signing a contract in 2016, EDP has done a number of studies related to the effects of the wind farm, including noise models, a wildlife analysis, geological work, and following regulated setbacks of 550 metres from the nearest house.

It said experts had provide evidence the project would have “no material adverse effects” on the natural environment, including the bat population.

“Decisions of this nature should be based on science and law, yet there was no expert testimony or evidence presented at the Tribunal or to the Minister that would provide a reasonable rationale for the Minister’s decision.”

Opponents were thrilled to hear about the reversal, as even their own MPP had told them the project was too advanced to stop.

“I am ecstatic,” said Ruby Mekker, 68, a retired educator and one of the project’s most vocal opponents. “I can’t believe that they actually sided in favour of the people. I’m so thrilled.”

She says a handful of wells in the area have already had problems suspected to be connected to the wind farm infrastructure.

About six of the turbines are fully built and another half-dozen have the towers erected. The project was to be finished in the first quarter of 2020.
 
What a dilemma, I love it!!! What, pray tell, will the liberals do? Which issue will take priority? Will they save the poor cute little non-adopted bats or will they save humanity which only has 12 years before its doom?

:popcorn:
 
What a dilemma, I love it!!! What, pray tell, will the liberals do? Which issue will take priority? Will they save the poor cute little non-adopted bats or will they save humanity which only has 12 years before its doom?

:popcorn:
They'll go to save the bats.
 
Once they rust out and are no longer viable, they are an eyesore. I could not understand why the ones in Hawaii were not operational in such a windy area. In addition to the fact they were rusted out and marred the beauty of the island.

Apollo Kamoa Wind Farm - Not in Use! Kamaoa Wind Farm consisted of 37 Mitsubishi 250-kilowatt wind turbines capable of generating up to 9.3 megawatts which are all disabled as of the end of 2008. These were old machines and it was not cost effective to keep these going.

Molokai residents point to a now defunct windmill operation at South Point on the Big Island of Hawaii as one reason not to erect windmills. On the beachfront site, many of the steel windmills have rusted into place or collapsed.

The property where the Big Island windmills now stand was once owned by Kahuku Ranch. Kahuku Ranch sold the property to the WF Co.

While new windmills are going up on Oahu, many neighbor island residents are wondering why others have been left standing unused for decades.

One Big Island rancher told Hawaii Reporter: “The windmills were the Model T. of Mitsubishi’s and had never been tested in Japan. Eventually they leaked oil and the wind would blow the oil quite a ways from the towers. Why they are allowed to still stand there is a big question. Aren’t there laws that say that they must be removed and the area cleaned up?”


http://www.hawaiireporter.com/more-windmills-coming-but-not-all-island-residents-approve/
 
Wind Turbine Blades Can’t Be Recycled, So They’re Piling Up in Landfills
Companies are searching for ways to deal with the tens of thousands of blades that have reached the end of their lives.



A wind turbine’s blades can be longer than a Boeing 747 wing, so at the end of their lifespan they can’t just be hauled away. First, you need to saw through the lissome fiberglass using a diamond-encrusted industrial saw to create three pieces small enough to be strapped to a tractor-trailer.

The municipal landfill in Casper, Wyoming, is the final resting place of 870 blades whose days making renewable energy have come to end. The severed fragments look like bleached whale bones nestled against one another.

“That’s the end of it for this winter,” said waste technician Michael Bratvold, watching a bulldozer bury them forever in sand. “We’ll get the rest when the weather breaks this spring.”

Tens of thousands of aging blades are coming down from steel towers around the world and most have nowhere to go but landfills. In the U.S. alone, about 8,000 will be removed in each of the next four years. Europe, which has been dealing with the problem longer, has about 3,800 coming down annually through at least 2022, according to BloombergNEF. It’s going to get worse: Most were built more than a decade ago, when installations were less than a fifth of what they are now.

Built to withstand hurricane-force winds, the blades can’t easily be crushed, recycled or repurposed. That’s created an urgent search for alternatives in places that lack wide-open prairies. In the U.S., they go to the handful of landfills that accept them, in Lake Mills, Iowa; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and Casper, where they will be interred in stacks that reach 30 feet under.
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Once they rust out and are no longer viable, they are an eyesore. I could not understand why the ones in Hawaii were not operational in such a windy area. In addition to the fact they were rusted out and marred the beauty of the island.

Apollo Kamoa Wind Farm - Not in Use! Kamaoa Wind Farm consisted of 37 Mitsubishi 250-kilowatt wind turbines capable of generating up to 9.3 megawatts which are all disabled as of the end of 2008. These were old machines and it was not cost effective to keep these going.

Molokai residents point to a now defunct windmill operation at South Point on the Big Island of Hawaii as one reason not to erect windmills. On the beachfront site, many of the steel windmills have rusted into place or collapsed.

The property where the Big Island windmills now stand was once owned by Kahuku Ranch. Kahuku Ranch sold the property to the WF Co.

While new windmills are going up on Oahu, many neighbor island residents are wondering why others have been left standing unused for decades.

One Big Island rancher told Hawaii Reporter: “The windmills were the Model T. of Mitsubishi’s and had never been tested in Japan. Eventually they leaked oil and the wind would blow the oil quite a ways from the towers. Why they are allowed to still stand there is a big question. Aren’t there laws that say that they must be removed and the area cleaned up?”



http://www.hawaiireporter.com/more-windmills-coming-but-not-all-island-residents-approve/
I was terribly disappointed to see those ugly things on the beautiful hillside in Hawaii. It was such an eyesore and It made me wonder exactly who approved that stupid decision.
 
“The wind turbine blade will be there, ultimately, forever,” said Bob Cappadona, chief operating officer for the North American unit of Paris-based Veolia Environnement SA, which is searching for better ways to deal with the massive waste. “Most landfills are considered a dry tomb.”

“The last thing we want to do is create even more environmental challenges.”

In the European Union, which strictly regulates material that can go into landfills, some blades are burned in kilns that create cement or in power plants. But their energy content is weak and uneven and the burning fiberglass emits pollutants.

In a pilot project last year, Veolia tried grinding them to dust, looking for chemicals to extract. “We came up with some crazy ideas,” Cappadona said. “We want to make it a sustainable business. There’s a lot of interest in this.”
 
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