Over the last year, our communities have been overwhelmed by the installation of Industrial Wind Development. In the municipalities of North Middlesex, Lambton Shores and Adelaide-Metcalf NextEra’s Bornish project (45 turbines), Kerwood project (37 turbines) and Jericho project (92 turbines) all use the same transmission line to feed electricity into the grid. Bornish and Kerwood became operational this past summer while Jericho went live last month. The Suncor Adelaide project of mammoth 2.3 MW turbines has yet to come on line.
All three of NextEra’s projects were appealed to the Environmental Review Tribunal (ERT). All of the appeals were dismissed, by the esteemed panel; noting that the community had no grounds for concern, as the expert panel provided by the proponents testified under oath that there was no possible impact to the community or the environment. The ERT found that the Appellants failed to provide evidence to show that engaging in these projects WILL cause serious and irreversible harm.
Here is an example of that testimony from the Jericho ERT:
NextEra’s expert witness, Mr. James Arkerson, Manager – Wind Project Engineering at NextEra Energy Resources LLC, the Approval Holder’s parent company, testified that “he was not an expert in stray voltage“. He also testified “that the transmission and collection lines for the Project were designed by licensed professional engineers and that the system complies with the Ontario Electrical Safety Code and other applicable standards.” So they must be safe, and that was evidence enough to prove that the projects would not impact the health and well being of the residents of our communities.
Mr. Arkerson also raised the possibility that other conductive objects, such as metal fences or pipelines, might induce voltage but noted that the Approval Holder is obligated to perform induction studies and demonstrate compliance to the ESA and the affected utilities, but he expected in this case that any voltage induced would be insignificant. When questioned about whether this conclusion was premature given that the induction studies were not complete, Mr. Arkerson stated that he was drawing on his past experience with numerous similar projects. He also noted that the Project cannot be energized until compliance with the applicable standards has been demonstrated to the satisfaction of the ESA. Unfortunately, for the residents affected by this project, Mr. Arkerson was merely a puppet, speaking the words of NexTerror, and his ‘expertise’ failed to prove that there was definitely NO reason for concern, with regards to stray voltage.
This is what’s really happening in our communities ……………..
Mothers Against Wind Turbines Inc. 