Blowin' In the Wind...

The Chronicle Herald
Saturday, Jan. 16,2010
All
OPINION
There's trouble blowing in the wind
IG wind farms in fi-
nancial or deadline trou-
ble, sometimes being
bailed out by Nova Sco-

tia Power, are almost daily fare
on the business pages these
days. Like much of the rest of
the world, we've cast wind as
the saviour in our quest for
green energy. Here's stuff we
should know while we still have
time to reset our options.
In Spain, Italy, the U.S. and
elsewhere, big wind power
scams have erupted, the result
of hundreds of billions of dol-
lars in subsidies being pumped
into wind with little control.
Some politicians and entrepre-
neurs are already in jail.
"It's the same mentality as a
Texas oil strike," a crusading
lawyer in the Spanish Canary
Islands, chasing down a major
scandal, told the New York
Times a few weeks ago. "This is
a gold rush, and everybody
wants a wind park at whatever
price."
Plus, there are questions
about whether big wind is do-
ing what it's supposed to do -
reduce carbon emissions.
Spain's carbon emissions have
gone up dramatically (30 per

RALPH SUREnE
cent over the last 10 years)
despite being one of the world's
leading wind power countries.
Major analyses have questioned
to what extent wind has con-
tributed to Demark and Germa-
ny's relatively better carbon
performances.
And there are battles against
wind farms wherever people
are too close, and health and
property values are at stake. A
defining study entitled "Wind
Turbine Syndrome" has been
written by a Dr. Nina Pierpont
of New York, as the scientific
literature mounts on the prob-
lematic effects of noise and
subsonic waves. Denials and
cover-ups are increasingly re-
ported. Recently there was an
uproar in Britain as the govern-
ment was caught doctoring a
report on decibel levels at wind
farms.
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
In Nova Scotia, there's citizen
opposition in places too, nota-
bly at Digby Neck and back of
Bailey's Brook on the hill range
between New Glasgow and
Antigonish, where the com-
plaint is that citizen participa-
tion has been shunted aside.
This project, called Glen Dhu,
to be built by Shear Wind Inc. of
Bedford (recently bailed out by
a Spanish billionaire who took
a big chunk of the company)
promoted the project as being
two kilometres away from the
nearest homes, upped that to
three kilometres, but when the
application was filed, according
to the citizen group opposing
the project, it was 640 metres.
And the number of turbines
started as between 30 and 60,
but rose to 130.
The group, the Eco Aware-
ness Society, also filed a com-
plaint with the Nova Scotia
Environment Department ac-
cusing Shear Wind of providing
false or misleading informa-
tion, mainly on noise effects, in
its environmental assessment
application. The Environment
Department investigated and
found no offence.
There is a risk that when the
Admirable attributes
,
It concerns me to read about the
possible demolition of the CBC
Radio building on South Park
Street in Halifax. I have _been here
We hear our politicians saying
that we need private-sector in-
vestment in this province to pro-
vide jobs and pay taxes.
Well, I am sure that falls on deaf
ears in thp nrivAi-c.-Q~+""- ..... _-_ •.•
Our Immigration Department
should take a hard approach to
such persons who are living in
Canada. We all have the right to
our opinions but when it oorrrea to
.•.. ---_... -
big policy rig is rolling with
tens of millions of dollars
aboard, the small stuff, includ-
ing truth and transparency, gets
flattened. That's the time to ask
questions about where the con-
traption is going.
The issue isn't the value of
wind power as such. It's part of
the solution. It's just that, as
with ethanol or biomass, any
idea that sounds good goes to
extremes immediately on the
fantasy that these alternatives
can replace existing energy
sources seamlessly and we
won't have to change our ways.
Neal Livingston of Mabou,
who has been struggling to
make it in the alternate energy
field for 30 years - and just got
a contract with Nova Scotia
Power for a six megawatt pro-
ject involving three to four
turbines - says it might not be
a bad thing if some of these
huge wind projects collapsed.
Since the energy issue is not
just that, but also an issue of
economics and what kind of
society we want for the future
as conventional energy gets
squeezed, it might inject some
realism into the policy picture.
What we need, he says, are
community-sized wind projects,
owned by local people, that are
part of a mix of solar, conserva-
tion and others -and the pol-
icies to make that happen. "The
problems with wind you've
described to me are mostly
problems with big capitalism."
Meanwhile, Bill Phillips, a
retired electrical engineer with
NSP and its predecessors,
phoned to thank me for suggest-
ing we connect to Hydro-Que-
bec to sidestep our big wind
policy muddle, as I did last
week.
Wind, he said, "has a place,
but not as significant a place as
it's made out to be." But it was
"as an NSPI investor" that he
was really bothered. The utility
was spending "$100 million on
Nuttby Mountain alone" - a
wind farm it took over from a
failed private operator.
Indeed, along with citizen
protests, fraud, a subsidy-dri-
ven bubble and so on, we have
the question of how much big
wind is going to cost and who's
going to pay if it doesn't add up.
Ralph Surette is a veteran freelance
journalist living in Yarmouth County.
(rsurette@herald.caJ