The final nail in the coffin of the proposed EverPower Wind LLC farm in the communities of Chipmonk and Knapp Creek was hammered when the Allegany Town Board unanimously voted to rescind the wind overlay district.
“It’s been a long time coming and I’m glad this is over,” said Chipmonk resident Karen Mosman after the meeting. “But I’m in shock, is it real?” Read rest of the article here.
Unbelievable Beauty to Unspeakable Horror
The landscape of Lake Superior has visually unmatched vistas and unbelievably gorgeous landscapes. The Group of Seven spent many years trying to capture the soul of its glorious majesty and its splendors are recorded on countless canvasses. However, nothing they painted can ever match the reality of its wonder. Now it is a prime location for industrial wind installations.
This is the site for Bow Lake Wind Farm.
Read about March of the Wind Turbines: Wind Farm Development in Northern Ontario
“Down Wind” July 10 at 7 p.m. at the Regent Theatre, Picton
Dear APPEC Supporter:
APPEC Fundraising Committee has arranged a showing of Down Wind at the Regent Theatre
Thursday, July 10 at 7 p.m. Admission $10.00.
Sun News Network contributor
will be on hand to introduce the film.
Offshore wind energy faces setbacks in Great Lakes
Julie Grant Cleveland Ohio July 04, 2014
The U.S. doesn’t yet generate one watt of energy from commercial offshore wind.
A few years ago, it looked like the Great Lakes might lead the nation. Pennsylvania was among a handful of states working with federal agencies to speed up the process.
As recently as this spring, construction of a wind farm in Lake Erie, off the Ohio shoreline near Cleveland, looked promising. But now, there’s doubt there will be any wind development in the Great Lakes.
The idea for building a wind farm in Lake Erie near Cleveland was hatched ten years ago. Wind energy developer Lorry Wagner says leaders started looking toward the energy sector to create more jobs. That’s when they realized the region’s potential for offshore wind energy.
“The real resource is in the Lake. And the reason for that is you get about three times the energy due to the higher wind speeds and less turbulence than you do on land.”
The Department of Energy estimates the country has an offshore wind capacity of 4 million megawatts. That’s four times the generating capacity of all U.S. electric power plants.
Wagner is president of the Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation, a non-profit known as LEED Co.
They started developing a pilot project, to build a wind farm out in the lake. Other Great Lakes states were also moving forward with offshore wind. In 2012, Pennsylvania, Michigan and others negotiated with federal agencies to streamline the permitting process. A proposed wind farm in Nantucket Sound called Cape Wind was mired in lawsuits, and it looked like the Great Lakes might be the nation’s first region to get a project in the water.
And LEED Co.’s wind farm was in line to be that project. LEED Co was in the running for a $47 million grant from the Department of Energy to get things started.
Standing on the Cleveland pier in late April, LEED Co spokesman Eric Ritter pointed out into the Lake, at where they plan to build six turbines. Each would be taller than the Statue of Liberty. Ritter was confident LEED Co. would win.
“We’re anticipating good news in couple of weeks.”
But they didn’t get good news. Last month, the Department of Energy granted the money to off-shore wind projects on the east and west coasts. Read rest of article here.
Hackers Find Open Back Door to Power Grid With Renewables
Making the electricity grid greener is boosting its vulnerability to computer hacking, increasing the risk that spies or criminals can cause blackouts.
Adding wind farms, solar panels and smart meters to the power distribution system opens additional portals through which hackers can attack the grid, according to computer security experts advising governments and utilities. Where traditionally the grid took power from a few sources, it’s now absorbing it from thousands.
The communication networks and software that link green energy sources to the grid as well as the electronic meters that send real time power usage to consumers and utilities are providing new back-door entry paths for computer hackers to raise havoc with the grid. The disclosure this week that hackers known as “Dragonfly” and “Energetic Bear” gained access to power networks across the U.S. and Europe in the past 15 months is a reminder of how vulnerable the system has become.
Bonkers Renewables
Update from PECFN — the Ostrander Point appeal and two fundraising events
PECFN is going into the appeal (Court of Appeal), of the appeal (Divisional Court), of the appeal (Environmental Review Tribunal). In April we received a stay on any construction at Ostrander Point until the matter is resolved. Having been successful with the stay and with the ERT and also now the permission to proceed to the Appeal Court, PECFN has a 3/1 success rate! That makes us optimistic for a good outcome at the Appeal Court.
Natalie Smith [lawyer working with Eric Gillespie] has provided us with the answers to some of the questions that everyone has been asking:
- We file a notice of appeal by next Friday June 27th;
- We have to “perfect” the appeal by filing another factum, along with a book of authorities, appeal book, exhibit book, and a book of transcripts by July 28th;
- We should then receive MOE and Gilead’s responding materials by September 26th
View original post 261 more words
Mothers at the Poultry Fest in Smithville
Government cannot just let Goliath win
Amanda Moore Grimsby Lincoln News June 25, 2014
I really didn’t think David had a chance.
No offence to David — in this case, an ordinary group of citizens who have spent an extraordinary amount of time becoming pseudo-experts on all things industrial wind turbines — but at first there didn’t appear even the slightest chance of stopping the threat of wind power. It certainly seemed that way when the turbines began to rise from the rural landscape last fall. Though I understood your efforts, it seemed as though they were futile.
Yet you pushed on, and because of you operation of the project was stalled, and the project’s status went from approved to awaiting approval.
Four out of the five were built closer to neighbouring property lines than the stipulated distance — the height of the turbine from base to hub. That’s an 80 per cent error rate. If that was a math test, they’d have failed miserably.
If your neighbour builds a shed or fence too close to your property, there are steps that you can take to correct that action. But when the something they built too close is a 95-metre tall metal tower weighing 205 metric tonnes (plus the blades), it’s a little tricky. But in this case, I don’t know how the provincial government can justify letting this madness continue. Read rest of this article here.
Mothers Against Wind Turbines Inc. 