December 13, 2006
Ontario

Wind project up in the air in Augusta Twp.

One of the first questions facing the new council in Augusta Township is: where do things stand with the planned wind-turbine project for the municipally owned industrial park near Blue Church Road and Highway 401?

Representatives of Ottawa-based Windfield Energy Incorporated, the company that was proposing the electricity-generating project, have not returned several phone calls from The Recorder and Times in recent days.

Also, the firm’s website at www.windfieldenergy.com has not been functioning, and e-mails sent to company officials have bounced back to the sender.

“I have absolutely no idea,” said Mel Campbell, Augusta’s new reeve, when asked about the wind-turbine project during the media-question period of Monday’s council meeting. “I’m not aware of what the status of that project is.”

Campbell said the matter would be deferred to a later meeting of council.

In July of last year, the previous council gave Windfield exclusive rights to erect a wind turbine at the industrial park, which is currently vacant.

The company was given three years to do preliminary work and find investors for the turbine.

The municipality would have been given first dibs at owning shares in a newly formed company to run the equipment, which would sell power into the public electricity grid and help stabilize the power supply in the immediate area.

The township would also get rent of $5,000 a year, or $3,000 per megawatt capacity, whichever amount is more, for renting out the land.

In December of last year, Windfield president Robert van Eyk said a public meeting would be held the following spring to update residents on the turbine project, but it was never held.

By Derek Abma

Staff Writer

newsfeed.recorder.ca


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2006/12/13/wind-project-up-in-the-air-in-augusta-twp/