Wind Runs on Subsidies

Around the world markets for renewables industries are directly linked to the flow of money from policies endorsed by governments leading to the enrichment for the proponents of the projects.

In Australia wind developers are currently fighting back in a life and death battle against the threat of the RET being revoked. This is signaling the death knell for the renewable industry in the land down under.

Australian report urges end to renewable energy target

While in the United States project financiers and project builders are breathing easier with the released notice announcing the security of continued qualification for the tax credits, PTC or ITC, if the projects have met the following tests:  wind or renewable energy project had  been started. or paid 5% of the costs by January 1 2014.  The threshold to meet these tests were clarified and the one for the physical work test reads as;

“The Notice clarifies that there is no minimum amount of work or monetary threshold required to satisfy the Physical Work Test”

United States: Notice 2014-46 Provides Additional Guidance On Eligibility Of Wind And Other Renewable Energy Facilities For The PTC Or The ITC

Meanwhile the doors remain wide open and  things are swishing , swooshing and sizzling  along for wind and other renewable projects In Ontario.  The FIT 3 line up of approved projects has been made and this round  was mainly comprised of solar installations:

Ontario PowerAuthority -J uly 30, 2014: FIT Version 3 contracts offered

FIT 3  hasn’t changed the appetite for  some in doing business in Ontario such as  Next Era ( parent company Florida Power and Light)  They remain keen to continue to take advantage of Ontario and announced they were looking for even more projects to sustain them…..

Florida firm eyes setting up more wind farms in Ont.

Renewable energy projects grow vigorously with the guarantee of subsidies and Ontario continues to follow the path of sustaining the industry at all costs.

 Good things  grow in Ontario ….. but at the end of the day, You can’t Eat Money.

Britian,  Germany, US and Australia all re-thinking the renewable / turbine/ solar thing….meanwhile in Ontario it’s full steam ahead?

STT followers have been delighted with news that Tony Abbott, Joe Hockey and Mathias Cormann have teamed up to axe the mandatory RET (see our post here).

In response to the PM’s mooted plan, the wind industry and its parasites have been reduced to making idle threats of “revenge” and bleating about “sovereign risk”. Despite a rear-guard effort by Environment Minister, Greg Hunt to salvage something of the mandatory RET, his boss has confirmed that his mission is to kill it outright. And that pretty much means the end of the wind industry as we’ve known and grown to despise it. Here’s the Australian Financial Review on the beginning of the end.

follow link to read this very informative post by our Australian friend at  STT : STT, Aug 27 2014

Enercon GmbH’s Wobben Windpower is losing contracts in Brazil after tax authorities canceled some exemptions for wind turbine manufacturers in the country, an official said.

The Brazil unit of Germany’s Enercon had a single customer so far this year, Mathias Moser, a vice president of Wobben, said in an interview yesterday in Rio de Janeiro. The company had considered leaving South America’s fastest-growing market after Brazilian tax authorities in April removed a tax incentive and required turbine makers such as Wobben, Spain’s Gamesa Corp., Tecnologica SA and Denmark’s Vestas Wind Systems A/S to pay back taxes for the exemption.

“This is definitely a restructuring year for us in Brazil,” said Mathias, who came to the country in April amid a management change.

Enercon, based in Aurich, Germany, decided to stay in Brazil last month after filing an appeal on the tax incentive ruling, according to Mathias. He didn’t disclose how much the company owes in back taxes. Brazil is seeking the previous five fiscal years of back taxes for the exemption.

“We have always produced in Brazil, so we have had the benefit for many years,” Mathias said. “It is a lot of money.”

read more: Bloomberg, By Vanessa Dezem Aug 29, 2014

It all started with Vin Diesel starting the “Plant a Tree For Groot” Challenge (Groot is a tree like character Vin Diesel played in the latest release of Guardians of the Universe movie)  Vin Diesel then challenged James Gunns’s and this is his “Plant a Tree For Groot” challenge.

James will donate $5000 to the rains forest trust if he can get 50 people to meet his challenge.

If you’re looking for a tree to plant you can get your white pine tree (sampling) from Mothers Against Wind Turbines $3 for one or 4 for $10.00.

You can challenge a friend or family member and hand them the tree at the same time!!   Send us a picture of you completing your challenge so we can post them and don’t forget to nominate someone to do the same.

https://mothersagainstturbines.com/2014/05/25/trees-not-turbines-white-pines-for-sale/

Join in on the “Plant a tree for Groot” Challenge and help the “Trees not Turbines” Campaign at the Same Time!! It’s a WIN – WIN situation!!

Join the REAL Green Movement….plant a tree.

Another Class-Action Lawsuit.

We made the wind developers rich putting them up and now the lawyers are going to get rich helping take them down.

Seven landowners filed a class action lawsuit this week to prevent wind turbines from being built near their homes in Canadian and Kingfisher counties.

In the complaint, which is embedded above, the landowners claim that planned wind farm projects controlled by Virginia-based Apex Clean Energy would create a nuisance, devalue their property and adversely affect their health.

An organization that opposes wind projects in the two counties, the Oklahoma Wind Action Association, brought the lawsuit on behalf of the landowners. The suit was filed Aug. 27 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma.

The landowners who brought the lawsuit all live within three miles of the planned wind farm, and, in many cases, own property within the “no-build” zone of the planned locations of the 500-foot-tall turbines.

From the complaint, with bullets added for readability: OKLAHOMA Economy, Energy, Natural Resources: Policy to People, AUGUST 27, 2014, JOE WERTZ

Interesting that the wind industry is concerned about ice falling on people and cattle but the MOE is not aware of any concerns.

The wind industry is trying to find improved methods of prevention of ice, and the MOE is satisfied with the present system.

Aug 22, 2014 – Wind Energy Update newsletter

• read more:  Will heat be the winner in de-icing turbine blades?

Pearson International (Toronto) seems to be surrounded by turbines.

King City Radar Visibility Map

HOW TO VIEW MAP

The radar site locations are marked with a black dot. A green circle shows a 50 kilometre radius around the radar.  Inside this 50 kilometre ring, potential interference with the radar may exist and direct consultation is strongly suggested. Major roads and cities are indicated in dark blue.

The colour display surrounding the radar(s) represents whether wind turbine blades could be seen by the respective radar (in yellow) and if the wind turbine towers can be seen (in red). The visibility maps have been created for turbine models with turbine tower heights of 100 meters and blade lengths of 50 meters (for a total blade height of 150 meters). If any part of a turbine is visible to a weather radar, interference is expected, but if the turbine tower is visible (in red) more severe impacts may occur. Any region not covered by the colour display indicates that a wind turbine with a total height of 150 meters should not be visible to the radar. However, a turbine with a blade height greater than 150 meters may be seen and further analysis is necessary.

follow for interactive Map : Environment Canada

Bill Monture and Lester Green represented the interests of the Men’s Fire Council, appealing Next Era’s Summerhaven and Samsung Pattern Energy’s Grand Renewable Energy  at the ERT (dubbed Monture 1 & 2)  Attached below are the decisions.

SIX NATIONS – The main disconnect between western style corporations and most Indigenous societies is that one deals with governments put in place to act on behalf of their people, while most traditional indigenous societies work alongside with “the people”.

This is a paradigm one group of Six Nations residents hope to revive.

Bill Monture, a well-known local activist and traditionalist, built a meeting place on his Chiefswood Road property as a neutral space and has begun a process by which he hopes to find the future for Six Nations in the past.

Recently, he hosted a meeting at the converted barn, which was attended by a room full of unlikely participants, including Mark Clearwater and Randy Reed representing the provincial government, Haldimand County Mayor Ken Hewitt, and about 30 rank-and-file Six Nations citizens to openly and frankly discuss matters of interest to Six Nations as a people and the future of co-existence of the traditional wisdom of the ancestors and the reality of the 21st century, and to do so without the presence of the media.

He and the group known to the Six Nations community as the “Men’s Fire” are trying to refocus the attention of all parties currently vying for the power to speak on behalf of the people of Six Nations, and at the same time, educate settler governments and corporations on how to rightly deal with Six Nations.

read more: Two Row Times, Jim Windle lAugust 20, 2014

Summerhaven Final Decision

Samsung ERT Desicion

AS of AUGUST 20, 2014 The Port Ryerse wind Farm has been approved. You can read the whole decision here.  The opportunity is  until Sept 5 to appeal.

http://www.ebr.gov.on.ca/ERS-WEB-External/displaynoticecontent.do?noticeId=MTIxMTM2&statusId=MTg0ODI5&language=en