filed: December 20, 2011 • Letters, Saskatchewan

Marginal benefit

Credit: The StarPhoenix, www.thestarphoenix.com 20 December 2011 ~~

City council was mistaken to approve proceeding with a $5 million tall wind turbine at the landfill.

It showed no interest in the comments made by Coun. Pat Lorje and had no empathy for Montgomery residents. Lorje was correct to say, “Council made a decision on a wing and a prayer while saluting the green flag.”

The wind power classification chart lists wind resources potential as: marginal; fair; good; excellent; outstanding; and superb. Kevin Hudson, an alternative energy engineer with Saskatoon Light and Power, has stated quite clearly that this site is classed as marginal.

The annual mean wind speed at this location is 6.45 metres per second, or 23 kilometres an hour. By comparison, SaskPower’s Cypress wind facility, rated as outstanding, has an annual mean wind speed of 8.33 m/sec or 30 km/h. Superb sites are generally located on the East Coast, West Coast and around the great lakes, and have annual mean wind speeds of nine to 10 m/sec.

Just as it would not make sense to build a hydro plant on a river with a marginal supply source of water, it doesn’t make sense to build a wind farm on a site with a marginal source of wind.

No investor-owned utility would ever do this.

City Council should lower the green flag and raise the red flag.

Paul L. Baerg, Saskatoon

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