Council Reviewing Setback Distance for Wind Turbines

The News – May 8, 2014

PICTOU – The phones of local county councillors were ringing Monday with calls from a resident upset over noise coming from the new wind turbine site on Tower Road.

Coun. Robert Parker said he received a call Monday from someone in the area who asked him to come down to Tower Road where new turbines have been installed and listen to the noise they were making on a stormy day.

“The noise up there during (nasty) weather was unreal,” said Parker and encouraged fellow councillors to take a drive to the area before the next planning advisory committee meeting, which will look at the setback rule for wind turbines in the future.

A large contingent of residents visited council chambers in March asking that the setback for wind turbines be extended to 1.5 kilometres from 600 metres.

Magna says no new plants for Canada, cites Ontario energy costs

Ontario energy, pension costs a concern, the company says.

Dana Flavelle — Toronto Star — May 8, 2014

Magna International Inc. says it has no plans to open any new plants in Canada despite a lower dollar, chief executive officer Don Walker says.

The nearly 10 per cent decline in the Canadian dollar relative to the U.S. greenback has helped make the Aurora-based global auto parts supplier more cost competitive, Walker told the company’s annual general meeting Thursday.

But the company said it’s concerned about Ontario’s industrial electricity rates and proposed pension plan, along with the future of its auto assembly plants.

“I’m worried about electricity prices in Ontario, where all of our plants are located,” Walker told a press conference…

AUSTRIA — National Noise Day 30th April, 2014:

The Medical Chamber (equivalent to the Austrian Medical Association) is issuing a warning on behalf of large-scale wind turbine installations. The Chamber is calling for comprehensive studies on potential negative health effects as well as minimum safety distances to populated areas.

Vienna — Noise problems, caused by the operation of wind turbines, are drawing increasingly more attention from scientists. This was pointed out todday, Wednesday, by the Medical Chamber on the occasion of the International Noise Awareness Day. The Medical Chambe is now calling for comprehensive studies on potential negative health effects as well as a minimum safety distance to populated areas.

Wind power plants are — as opposed to individual wind turbines — very large scale operations and clustered into “wind parks”. The rotor diameter of current turbines can measure up to 114 metres — almost the length of a soccer…

Click on image to go to Sun News page to watch video:

Watch the video accompanying this article and listen to the wind industry rep talk about how, in spite of these deaths, their turbines have a ‘net’ benefit.

Meanwhile, environmentalists turn their backs and say, “Collateral damage.”

Andrew Pereira — KITV4 news — May 2, 2014

HONOLULU —Hawaii’s push toward green energy is having an impact on flying creatures who live next to wind farms or traverse the spinning turbines, some of which stand 493 feet tall at the highest blade tips.

According to data provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 195 birds and bats and one moth were killed by five of the largest wind farms on Maui and Oahu since August 2007. KITV4 obtained the information after filling a Freedom of Information request with the agency.

“Unfortunately, that may just be the price we have to pay for wind energy, renewable energy,” said Angela Huntemer, a North…