Wind Energy In Ontario: The State Of Play

The controversy around Ontario's Green Energy Act has faded since the OLP won their majority.  Konrad Yakabuski can whine as much (and as inaccurately) as he wants, but Ontario anti-wind activists are basically left to pound sand for the next couple of years, losing in court and before the Ontario ERT and handing lawyer Eric Gillespie their hard-earned money for leading them into folly over and over again.  Furthermore, given that repealing the act was placed front and center of the Hudak Tories' disastrous election platform, I wouldn't be surprised if the next leader of that party doesn't just quietly file the whole issue away as "not helpful".

But there are still a few new twists to be added to the saga.  For example,  I've written about the various Ostrander Point decisions on numerous occasions. Originally, the wind farm there was shot down because its attendant road network might threaten the local population of Blanding's turtle.  This decision was later overturned, and that decision was in turn appealed.

While the appeal has not yet been heard, nevertheless  the bill for legal actions to date has come due for the appellants.  The Prince Edward County Field Naturalists and the Alliance to Protect Prince Edward County, who have led the charge against the project, have been ordered to pay the wind development company $50,000 all told.  Some of the factors considered in this decision:

1 Nature of the unsuccessful litigant – The PECFN and APPEC are not public advocacy groups pursuing a broad public policy mandate. As residents of Prince Edward County, they have a "direct and personal interest" in the outcome of the litigation.

[...]

5 Final consequences to the parties – While Ostrander is better suited to absorb costs associated with the litigation, that alone is not a reason to deny costs. One function of awarding costs is to ensure that all parties "consider the wisdom of pursuing litigation and understand that there are consequences for doing so".

It will be interesting to see what next steps are taken by the province's various anti-wind groups. Given that the court/ERT decisions have been going against them for years, and that political salvation in the form of a PCPO government ready to repeal the GEA is years away, if ever,  I wouldn't be surprised to see some fall-off in activity.

Wind Farm Opponents Out Six Figures

A group of landowners who unsuccessfully sued a wind power developer and the farm corporation that leased it land have been ordered to pay legal costs of $107,370.78.

The 21 landowners near Collingwood sued wpd Canada Corp. and Beattie Brothers Farms for more than $17 million over the plans to develop the wind farm, arguing that it had decreased their property values.

Madam Justice S.E. Healey dismissed the action, ruling that while the landowners’ property value may have been diminished, it was not caused by any misconduct by wpd or Beattie Brothers.

Actually this last bit is misleading.  It is fairer to say that the judge offered no opinion on whether the property values may have been diminished, but decided that, regardless, the developer had not engaged in misconduct.  I wrote about the decision at greater length here.

Wind Energy And Property Values In Ontario, Part Whatever...

An interesting decision came down this week re wind energy and property values in Ontario.  Before getting to the actual contents of it, though, lets see how the thing is being spun.  This piece from Farms.com  is fairly typical:

An Ontario Superior Court of Justice has determined that landowners living near industrial wind turbine projects do suffer from diminished property values. The court accepts that 22% to 55% loss of property values is occurring today. 


It also gets things terribly wrong,  misreading the meaning of accepts in the relevant context.

What actually happened is that the wind developer, wpd. Canada Corporation, and the farm that has agreed to host the nascent project--Fairview Wind has not been built or even approved yet--moved a motion that the claims against them by nearby property owners be "dismissed in their entirety". They won, hands down.  However, as part of their legal strategy (all these screen shots are easier read if you click on them, by the way):

In other words, wpd. Canada said; "Lets conditionally accept the plaintiff's evidence of diminuation for the purpose of the motion so we can  get on to the legal issues that would arise even if they were true."  The judge said OK, and  found that even if the plaintiffs had suffered the diminuation of value  claimed, there was no case:

Even accepting the plaintiffs' claims, which the Judge did provisionally, the plaintiffs can't sue wpd. Canada just for announcing the publication of a Notice of Draft Site Plan, which is as far as Fairview Wind had ever got.  You can't sue somebody over environmental/health risks that do not yet exist.

So the judge handed a win to the wpd. Canada and invited the plaintiffs to come back when if ever the project had been taken further along in the approvals process.  At that point their evidence will be tested, challenged, and evaluated.  Contrary to the various newspaper stories, this has not happened yet.

Just a final note as to why wpd. Canada chose to go this route.  This is speculating, but I imagine challenging the plaintiff's evidence would have involved wading through tons of crap science and eventually hiring expert witnesses to go up against the other side's expert witnesses.  Fairview Wind is pretty early along in the approvals process to lay out that kind of money when a cheaper route to victory is available.

Flash! Margaret Wente Makes Error In Column!

I'm shocked!  shocked!  And I'd forgotten she's on the BOD of Energy Probe, which is probably where she picks up most of of anti-renewable nonsense in the first place.

Sun Smears Suzuki

 When you read this story about the "controversy" David Suzuki and his foundation have found themselves in for endorsing Dalton McGuinty's Green Energy initiatives, you have to read between the lines.  What's between the lines can be found in a November 2010 blog post by Donna Laframboise, once journalist for the National Post.  It covers a lunch-time meeting between her and Sun Media's Kory Teneycke, in which young Kory tried to convince Donna to return to the business as a T.O. Sun columnist and Sun TV News talking head:

Kory responded to my really, I’m not a television person protestations with assurances that it would be OK. At the beginning, few people would be watching anyway, he insisted. He was sure that, with a bit of practice, I’d do fine.

[Teneycke's]one firm directive was that I should challenge David Suzuki.

Sun media has been planning to target David Suzuki since April of 2010 (when Kory met Donna).  They appear not to have hired a designated Suzuki basher, as per the original plan. But nothing else seems to have changed.

Wind: What Lawrence Solomon Emits

He blithers as follows:

The role of wind farms in the soaring power bills is not yet widely understood, just as the role of nuclear reactors in the rising power bills of two decades ago wasn't initially understood. As this understanding takes hold, and as wind's environmental costs become better known, the pushback will grow and wind will come to symbolize out-of-scale technology and arrogance-- the new nuclear.

Well, a year is a long time in politics, but as of last April the rebellion hadn't materialized:

Seventy-nine per cent (79%) of Scarborough residents support Toronto Hydro's plan to put a wind measuring device off the Scarborough shore, while 84 per cent of Essex County residents support plans to build wind farms there.

"What we're seeing in Essex County and Scarborough is not only strong support for the Green Energy Act, but strong support for local wind energy initiatives," said Dan Arnold of Pollara.

And since then the only real resistance I see to government efforts at making Ontario a green energy manufacturing center are from a bunch of NIMBYs with highly alleged health concerns.

Of course, Tim Hudak is looking to ride any angry populist wave he can find; so what's he going to do to stem the tide of turbines? Pretty much nothing, as it turns out. I'd bet it's because he doesn't see a wave coming from that direction.

Hudak On The Environment

On the one hand, its good to see that Tim Hudak embraces the concept of green or "emissions free" energy and hence, at least implicitly, the science of climate change. Of course, green energy for him means hydro electricity and more nuclear. Given, however, that the history of nuclear power plant construction typically involves intense NIMBYism (and not just by local Greens), cost over-runs and ever sliding completion dates, its ridiculous to imagine that any commitment to this technology will (as Hudak claims) put a lid on the rate increases that Ontarians have been subjected to over the last few years. Furthermore, Uranium, like oil and gas, will peak--perhaps in the middle of the new reactors' operating life--and so doesn't really count as a renewable in the first place.

On the other hand, Hudak is now exposed on his right flank to kooky denialist attacks from folks The Freedom Party of Ontario, who produced the video below. A year ago I would have argued that there are no votes to be had in this approach. Since that time...

...with the rise of Wild Rose in Alberta and the madness of the Republicans down South, I'm not so sure. Of course the Freedom party are a bunch of no-hopers as far as winning seats go, but they may be strong enough to pull Hudak right towards the full denialist position. We'll see if his small gestures towards environmental policy survive in the run-up to the provincial election.

Elaine McCoy On Government's Clean Energy Initiatives

Yesterday afternoon, Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt announced 146 million dollars in funding to support 19 projects under the Clean Energy Fund. I am happy to see the Minister put the money forward, but will refrain from leaping for joy just yet. Of that sum, many projects can only expect to receive 2 - 5 million dollars.

One project listed to receive funding is the Bay of Fundy tidal energy demonstration. Alas, we heard about this (and I blogged on it!) last October. Same goes for the geothermal project in Yellowknife, the Senate heard about that one two years ago while on a trip to the North. The list can likely go on. Regrettably it seems as though the most renewable thing about this news release, is the re-release of information.

How serious is this government? All of the projects are called demonstration projects. Many with huge capital costs, that make the 2 - 5 mil just a drop in the proverbial bucket.

So, how real is this?

Listen to her words. This Senator is both wise and hot.

Michael Morphs Into IgGuinty

"At the heart of our next platform will be the most significant national investment in clean-energy jobs this country has ever seen," leader Michael Ignatieff declared yesterday, a year less a day after his predecessor, Stéphane Dion, was whupped in a federal election, in part because of his proposed "green shift" carbon tax.

Not much to say here, other than that Dalton McGuinty has very quietly become Canada's most effective "green" premier and Iggy is to be commended for taking a similar approach--ie promise goodies in the way of investments rather than pain in the way of tax increases. As for this part:

Mr. Ignatieff promised that, under the Liberals, Canada would create incentives to promote the use of renewable energy such as solar and wind power; finance carbon sequestration technology to clean up its fossil-fuel production; spend on greener infrastructure, including "smart" electrical grids. And the federal government would buy greener cars and make its buildings more energy efficient under the Liberal plan.

...well, committing to CS and clean coal and such like is an admission that the transition away from fossil fuels will not be easy nor quick, and though I can't find the links, I would say that most responsible environmentalist organizations are at least willing to consider all of these options. I am surprised, in fact, that Iggy didn't bring up nuclear.

As for CS etc. here are a couple of links that might prove useful. Put briefly, Carbon Sequestration is neither the scam some (including a few of its supporters) think it is, nor a slam dunk as viable technology.

The Green Future Comes To Vancouver

May 6, 2009 -- Condo buyers at Concord Pacific's new Cosmo building in downtown Vancouver will have the capacity to plug in and charge their electric vehicles.

[...]

"We're saying it's no longer science fiction. It's a reality. "It's also not long before high-density projects without plug-in capability will be obsolete. It will be like buying a TV today without high definition. We think for the purchasers, this project will give them a longer market advantage."

[...]

Vancouver Electric Vehicle Association president Gerry Martselos also praised Concord. "EV charging is fast becoming a checklist item for future home buyers, as the majority of EV charging will be done overnight at home," he said in a statement.

Here's the building's website.

Sounds expensive (rigging out your parking spot for recharging costs about $5,000), but still, Vancouver has been been doing a lot along these lines. Probably Canada's greenest city at the moment (love those rooftop gardens on the condo buildings).

Ontario To Become Green Giant?

Tyler Hamilton's "look ahead" to green developments in 2009 contains a lot of interesting Ontario content (stuff I didn't know about, in other words). For example:

I've written about this before, but to recap, the Ontario government is apparently working on a piece of legislation aimed at dramatically boosting local investment in renewable-energy projects by giving green power priority on the grid. Ideally, the Ontario act would mirror a similar piece of legislation that Germany introduced in 2001 and that turned the European country into a wind and solar powerhouse.

And while I knew of an off-shore wind farm being proposed for Lake Ontario, most of the news seems to have been about the grousing and bouts of NIMBYism it has kicked up. Nevertheless, its a serious possibility that may be given the go-ahead by the end of '09. If so, then we have the makings of a whole new industry within the province. Maybe it can soak up some of those unemployed auto-workers.

Multibrid, the German maker of offshore turbines, says it wants to locate manufacturing in Ontario because of the province's skills base, manufacturing capacity and potential for offshore wind. But it won't come here if we're not prepared to build the projects. An earlier move by a Great Lakes state could lure Multibrid from Ontario, essentially stealing an anchor tenant that could lay the foundation for thousands of new jobs. Time's a wasting, Ontario.

In perhaps more disturbing news, next year

...we'll find out who the government has picked to build Ontario's first new nuclear plant in two decades, as well as what it's likely to cost. Estimates from U.S. utilities show that costs have doubled or tripled initial expectations, and some jurisdictions – such as South Africa – have cancelled plans to build new reactors because of high cost.

A facebook group Grand Erie Energy Quest (GEEQ) has popped up offering

...a petition to ensure citizens have a democratic say in the energy future of Nanticoke.

...should the province endorse the Bruce Power proposal for a new plant in Haldimand and Norfolk Counties. More information on that can be found here.

Power From Traffic, Redux

Another attempt at generating "green energy":

A new type of road being developed in Israel uses crystals embedded in the asphalt to turn the vibration caused by cars into electricity.

Engineers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology claim the piezoelectric crystals can produce up to 400 kilowatts from a 1-kilometre stretch of dual carriageway. The system is to be tested on a 100-metre stretch of road in northern Israel in January.

A spokesperson for the Environmental Transport Association (ETA) said: “Many predict a massive shift to electric cars, and it may be the roads themselves that help provide some of the power needed.”

Well, I doubt this last bit, as converting the entire (for example) British road system to this technology would only generate enough power to drive 34,500 small cars. Still, any projects attempting to harvest and use waste energy are to be encouraged.

And this reminds me of a Centenial College experiment from a few years back in which students tried to determine whether wind generated by traffic on the 401 could power a turbine. It could not, unfortunately:

Average wind speeds over a year, recorded at a 30-metre height, are "right on the margins of what would make a wind project there feasible," said Herb Sinnock, a Centennial instructor who helped make the case for installing the device.

Though a turbine was not built in T.O., here's an artist's conception of what one might look like:

Cool huh? Mind you, if one got loose and started rolling East at 60 Mph...

Go Green Or Go Without (Frilly Underwear)

From CNN:

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) - Alberta's resource companies are hearing a familiar pitch from an unfamiliar source this week as the U.S. publisher of the Victoria's Secret catalog tries to persuade Alberta's politicians and resource industry that green business can be good business.

[...]

Last year, after an intensive campaign by U.S. environmental groups, Limited Brands [which publishes Victoria's Secret] decided to stop buying wood pulp from several western Canadian plants, including the West Fraser (TSX:WFT) plant in Alberta. The decision also affected pulp plants in British Columbia.

As people have been predicting, Alberta has become ground-zero for international environmentalists. And while the Harpers and Stelmachs of this world may be content to blow off Canadians, you can bet they will play ball with the first New York slick that walks through the door. A bit depressing in that we require foreigners to drive our social evolution in the right direction. But whatever works...

Peak Oil, Green Energy

Simmons and Company International call themselves "Investment Bankers to the EnergyIndustry". Just in time for dooms-dayish stories like "World will face oil crunch ‘in five years’", they have launched a nifty slide show entitled "Autopsy of an Energy Crisis" in which they predict that an era of gas rationing will force North Americans into a Green future powered by such alternative energy sources as offshore wind and aquatic bio-fuels (that means diesel from Algae, I think).

Interesting, then, that for different quite reasons, the environmental movement and the energy industry are converging on a single goal: a post-petroleum society.

h/t to Denis for pointing me to the slide-show.