The business of harnessing the wind to create power was big business last year in Ontario and there is hope the growing industry will take greater heed of community concerns in 2015.
Dufferin County has long been known for its blustery weather but Larry Campbell says it's a hard not to notice something else about this place. There are now wind turbines in every direction he looks
“There's has to be 100 south of Dundalk right there alone just a pile of them and you really notice them on a nice clear day.”
The Dufferin wind project is the latest wind power development to be completed in the region with 49 new wind turbines coming on line now. Across Canada the wind energy industry grew at a record rate in 2014; adding more than 1,800 megawatts of generating capacity
According to the Canadian Wind energy association there are now enough turbines across the country to produce 9,700 megawatts of electricity. That’s enough to power 3,000,000 Canadian homes.
The Canadian Wind Energy Association's Brandy Giannatta says wind energy is creating jobs and putting money in farmers hands as it becomes more competitive with other sources of power.
“Wind energy increasingly cost competitive from a fuel cost perspective, the fuel will always be free. And building new generation has become more cost effective less expensive that building new nuclear or hydro generation for example.”
But wind generation has come with its fair share of controversy over the past decade. Turbines have been blamed for reducing property values, for killing birds and bats, driving up electricity prices and even making people sick. Julian Falconer is lawyer who represents 14 community groups opposed to wind farm development. He says a new health Canada study shows that people who live near turbines have good reason to be concerned.
“These turbines create low frequency noise that gets into homes interferes with sleep causes hyper tensions causes a whole series of health effects which so far have been completely ignored by the government.
Even so Paul Beatty thinks wind power is here to stay and has witnessed the growth in Dufferin County.
“The farmers are making money and the companies are taking advantage of it for sure.”
Ontario Power Generation has been paying 13.5 cents per kilowatt hour for wind energy but the that pricing structure is changing, in the future companies will have to compete to get contracts with the province.
