By  Tom Sebo Goulburn Post, NSW           March 3, 2014, 10:02 a.m.

THE NSW Government has asked the proponents of the Gullen Range Wind Farm to stop work on key turbines after an investigation by the Department of Planning and Infrastructure found “serious” breaches of its approval.

Many of the 73 turbines have been constructed in different locations to what was originally approved.

Gold Wind has voluntarily complied with the stop work order but has been warned it could face legal action in the Land and Environment Court.

Planning and Infrastructure executive director Chris Wilson was disappointed by the breaches and said the matter was serious.

“It is essential that the company stop work on the turbines that have been moved closer to homes,” he said.

Last week the proponents voluntarily stopped working on the turbines that had been identified however a spokesperson for the company disputed there had been any breaches. He said they had focused carefully on complying with the Development Approval.

“The project approval authorises the construction of the wind turbines in the locations identified in the environmental assessment but those locations may be subject to ‘minor relocation’,” he said.  Read rest of article here.

Minor relocation????!!!!!!!  187 meters off target is minor?????  Reminds me of a Monte Python skit where some poor fella loses a few limbs and calls it a “minor flesh wound”.  LOLOLOL  Here in Ontario we have a five turbine wind installation with four of the turbines out of compliance.  One is 27 metres not where it should be.  The developer though doesn’t seem to have an issue with that.  It is not a home it’s in violation of but someone’s property.  I guess it’s ok then right?  http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/2014/02/10/group-says-turbine-violations-should-halt-project

BP has dropped its plans to put $300 million worth of windmills in the town of Cape Vincent.

BP Wind Energy wanted to develop a 200 to 285 megawatt wind power farm in the town.

The decision to “terminate” the project comes after years of controversy in the community.

“What does this mean? It means the end of a 10-year battle,” said wind power proponent Gary King. “We lost. We felt it was the best thing for the town, but apparently majority rules.”
BP has been trying to sell its wind projects and decided to abandon the one in Cape Vincent. Town councilman John Byrne was among those against bringing a wind farm to Cape Vincent.
“British Petroleum is a business and they’re in this to make money,” Byrne said. “I think most people are aware of the fact that the likelihood of them getting a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes agreement) was slim. We don’t know if they had anyone to purchase their energy.”

Plans for the wind farm began almost a decade ago and ever since, the project has pitted neighbor against neighbor in Cape Vincent.  Read rest of article here.

Haldimand County, Ontario

February 2013 saw  the first of the Industrial Wind Turbines erected for the Summerhaven Project by NextEra in Haldimand County.  Port Dover & Nanticoke Wind project was also concurrently being rammed onto the fabric of the rural landscape. The massive turbines joining the increasingly crowded Haldimand horizons creating a gauntlet of wind turbines placed in essential global migratory flyways along the shores of Lake Erie in southern Ontario.

The onslaught of wind turbine installations and operations has continued to be unrelenting even to this day. Heavy machinery, an endless parade of gravel trucks, 230KV transmission lines to be erected on the very edges of front lawns in the Municipal right of ways, continues with the Grand Renewable Wind and Solar project (Samsung & Pattern Energy).  They are now in the race to meet deadlines for their in Commercial Operation Date set by the secretive contracts signed with the Province.

Well over 200 giant turbines and counting; each project seeing taller and larger machines and with no changes to the regulated setbacks to people’s homes.   Every week that passes sees even more approvals for Wind Power projects being signed off by the Ministry of the Environment.  Government at all levels remain deaf to the cries for help and objections from the unwilling host communities.  The political dance of denial and sleight of hand is dizzying  with the speed of changes in position and deflection of issues, as the balance of power shifts and turns as a elections looms for 2014.  People who are forced to live without a voice in land- use decisions  are a valuable resource for base votes for politicians that must court the scattered  minority in small communities to sway the government balances of power.

The construction chaos may have eased in parts of the county but it is now replaced by a growing chorus of complaints emerging about the turbine operations.  Complaints ranging from nuisance, operational safety concerns, and to the more serious impacts of reported adverse health effects.  This is compounded by the harsh climb in escalating electricity rates for all of Ontario as the price to be paid as the renewable energy projects power along unimpeded.  Like a train without any brakes heading for an impending predictable and sickening crash.  Precaution and prevention forgotten and perverted principles in the rush to continue the dying song for support of the Green Energy Act of Ontario.

The reality for the individuals and families affected is worse than any anticipation and hits those hard who had never given the wind projects a second thought.   Community discord easier to not acknowledge for those living out of sight of the massive machines in the adjacent towns. Sacrificing others who now live under the shadow flicker to the false crucifixes to all that ails the world.  Night descends and the sky is alight with frantic blinking red lights from the turbines.  A red light district spreading viral like across the land.  Man has sinned and an atonement is made.  Do no harm and do unto others has a new modern twist in the story of man and nature, in the sprawling footprint of the wind power plants.

Linda J Rogers

Unwilling host & a non-participating receptor in the Wind Ghettos

Jarvis Ontario