The German Energiwiende or Energy Transformation is one huge human and environmental disaster. One more victim to add to its growing pile and violations on areas of quiet and serene landscapes. For complete story read here:
Local Residents Pay High Price The highest price, though, may be paid by local residents. The construction time required for the project is estimated to be five years, a time during which an endless stream of noisy trucks will make their way up and down the mountain, day and night. Wide roads will have to be built through the forest up to Jochberg Mountain, and it’s possible that a concrete factory will have to be built on site to support the project. Rock and boulders from the tunnel will be dumped to create a wall around the reservoir. Throughout the building process, the village will be noisy, dusty and smelly. But the situation could be even worse for the Jocheralm, which is considered one of the most beautiful alpine meadows in Germany. On sunny summer days, as many as 500 hikers can be found on the trails here. If Energieallianz moves forward with its plans, it would all be submerged under water. Huts located in the meadows would have to be moved and those sitting outside on the banks would no longer get to enjoy vistas of content cows and lush meadows. Instead they’d be confronted with a metal fence in front of an asphalt reservoir.
We here in Ontario are not exempt from stupid. No surprise there.
http://thebiggreenlie.wordpress.com/2013/06/06/marmora-pumped-storage-a-disaster-waiting-to-happen/
http://www.intelligencer.ca/2013/08/15/more-digging-before-mining-for-megawatts
Mothers Against Wind Turbines Inc. 
Thank you for posting this. You may find some of my latest-posted pdf documents helpful to understanding how this proposal was imposed on our local population, near the top of this page in my site, that further down introduces me and a few of our braver local people:
http://www.hamiltonsgarage.com/marmora_green/meet.html
another mother – Kathy
You are welcome Kathy. This pumped storage facility is one more example of boondoggling that the Liberal government seems to have a penchant for. It would be great as a child’s science project but as a viable source of energy storage, it does not work. They do exist currently in other geographic locations around the world but they are not an efficient source of energy. Just like battery storage, flywheel technology and hydrogen storage they require much energy and resources to produce minimal energy. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Pumped storage facilities have failed before and the fact that your town of Marmora lies just beneath the project should be a deal breaker. But yet its not. Thank you Kathy and Un-citizens of Marmora for the hard work you do to expose this corruption. Keep in touch.
Following on Twitter, will attempt to keep in touch: https://twitter.com/myAnthropad
Problems I see being swept under the carpet right now could later see all Ontario ratepayers being forced to pay for additional generation of nothing besides private developer profits for being “capable of running” (in our case, at needless peril to local residents, too) – but next time powered by ill-considered PC party promotion of a fake “Green Energy” proposal:
Nobody except the “politically silenced” opposition in Marmora appears to be demanding discussions of a “public safety” solution pertinent to Northland Power’s “pumped storage” proposal (eg: forcing them to build their upper reservoir from roller-compacted concrete and on the other side of the pit) – and also potential broader-ranging solutions for reducing ratepayer risks of taking unnecessarily big financial hits at future contract re-negotiations (eg: forcing developers to obtain all approvals prior to any contract being granted).
I think every party should be including focus on discussions such as the latter, rather than limiting themselves to tut-tutting and finger-pointing at each other in hindsight, in attempts to gain political advantage – before we might all face another costly contract re-negotiation.
I’ve opined lightly on the latter, as inspired by comments from JoAnne Butler of the OPA and Mrs. Donna Cansfield, here:
Click to access pumpedTimeline.pdf
Is the real reason such public discussions remain lacking likewise purely political? Are all parties hoping the majority of voters don’t understand the underlying machinations of productive political opportunism, so won’t even think of, never mind demand such public discussions with their inclusion?
To me, it all boils down to the voters getting the chance to see demonstration of who really works for who (and therefore who represents whose interests and why) – BEFORE another election campaign for a change – regardless of who the governing or opposition parties may be, now or in future. Something overdue for decades, IMO.
Party principles, policies and platforms are called into question whenever any are conflicted by what’s demonstrated between elections? Moreso if a minority of vocal taxpayers independent from each other and with no party allegiances start publicly demonstrating inconveniently sharp memories?
Just how could party-dependent politicians prevent, never mind control, such a politically volatile situation confronting all parties seeking more power, to the advantage of only theirs?
More Un-Requested thoughts now shared with fellow mothers gathered here 🙂 Kathy
Actually, this is pretty typical of environmentalists–they love all idyllic scenes that don’t stand in the way of their making piles of money while destroying the planet.