1Why will we be on the hook for $100M+ if the White Pines project is cancelled?
The Ontario government has a contract with a private company to construct the White Pines wind farm consisting of nine turbines. Four of the turbines have already been built and installed and the remaining five are on the ground, waiting to go up. It is estimated that cancelling the contract will result in a $100,000,000 or more payment to the contractor if the Province does not live up to its contract.
2How much energy would the White Pines wind farm create?
The nine wind turbines that make up the White Pines wind farm would generate enough electricity to power more than half of the homes in Prince Edward County over the next 20 years.
3Does wind create clean energy?
Wind power is the most responsible way of replacing old 20th century sources of energy in Ontario. Canada is the world leader in wind electricity
generation per capita and Ontario leads all Canadian provinces with wind energy production. The cancellation of White Pines and other similar projects will put us behind Quebec and Alberta.
4Where can I find out more information about Wind Energy?
CanWEA, the Canadian Wind Energy Association, is the voice of Canada's wind energy industry, actively promoting the responsible and sustainable growth of wind energy. A national non-profit association, CanWEA is Canada's leading source of information on wind energy's social, economic, health and environmental benefits for Canadian communities and provincial economies. Established in 1984, CanWEA represents the wind energy community — organizations and individuals who are directly involved in the development and application of wind energy technology, products and services.
https://canwea.ca
5How does wind energy affect local wildlife?
All human activity and power generation has some impact on wildlife and our environment, with man made climate disruption having the most devastating effects of all , creating species extinctions at an unprecedented rate. However, wind energy has been proven over decades of operation around the world to be among the most benign ways of producing electricity with minimal impacts on wildlife. Wind farms such as White Pines had to pass years of strict Environmental Review Tribunals and more years of court challenges by anti-wind groups in order to get approval and contract to proceed, which is why this 9 turbine project was being built in the location selected.
6Do turbines have an adverse effect on human health?
Anti-wind lobbyist around the world have long used FUD ( Fear…Uncertainty…Doubt ) as an effective tactic to gain support for their crusade to stop renewable energy projects from proceeding. Over 20 countries ( Canada included ) have had to spend many tens of millions of taxpayer money to create independent Govt commissions to study the possible health impacts of living near wind turbines. Not a single one over these studies over the past decades have ever shown valid reasons to support the claims of harm to human health when wind turbines are sited with proper, safe setback guidelines. It has been demonstrated that where anti-wind lobby groups are most active seems to be where most fears about wind farms tend to occur. Meanwhile, millions of people worldwide live around wind farms with no problems at all and wind energy continues to be the fastest growing new energy source on the planet.
7How will we use the energy produced by the White Pines wind farm?
The IESO predicts an energy shortage by 2023 which the 9 White Pines turbines were meant to help fill as our aging nuclear plants like Pickering must be shut down. Prior to this period, the energy would be used to help meet the Provinces Climate Act Goals by working with the office of the
Environmental Commissioner toward such things as peak energy shaving, the decentralizing of power generation which reduces line losses to where the power is needed as well as providing better local protection from larger storm caused power outages. Included is hydrogen production for fuel cells, electric car charging and using pricing tools, i.e., allowing Ontarian’s to buy surplus power inexpensively for their electrical needs when available. It also means working with the Commission to Incorporate grid storage as many others jurisdictions are doing.
8Don't wind turbines have a big carbon footprint?
The carbon footprint for the entire wind farm would be offset by the carbon-free electricity generated within the first year of operation.
9Who created this web site and why?
Web-Site background was initiated when the new Provincial Government cancelled over 750 Green Energy Projects in the summer of 2018. County residents Pat and Bill White were appalled that it included the nearly completed White Pines Wind Farm in Milford. They teamed up with Don Ross of the County Sustainability Group, who have been advocating for wind energy for the past 20 years. Jennifer Ackerman, property owner of the site for Turbine 9 and Aaron and Angela Bell of the Lot 48 Film Co.
to make the highly successful upintheairfilm.com. Creation of the Wind in the County web-site was the next logical step to continue the fight against the bizarre dismantling of the Wind Turbines and the creation of a needless $100 million new debt for the County. — not to mention the automatic creation of the moniker “Prince Edward County — the jurisdiction that tears down Wind Turbines, while the rest of World is rushing to build them up." Seems like this may be a repeat of the Avro Arrow fiasco many years ago that decimated the Canadian Aviation Industry.