National Wind Watch: Wind Energy News » Opponents blown away by ignorance

PICTON – Opponents of wind turbines sounded the alarm at a three-day symposium hosted by the Society for Wind Vigilance on the weekend.

Organizer Beth Harrington, who divides her time between Toronto and Prince Edward County, said the weekend was a chance to unite those who have been working independently on a common cause.

“The most important thing is for all the scientists to be in the same room together,” she said.

Harrington said the weekend’s speakers represented a “multidisciplinary research group” and had basically “come to the same conclusion.”

“There’s very good documentation of how wind turbines impair sleep and how they affect directly the inner ear,” she said, saying this can lead to problems with thinking, concentration, moods and dizziness.

“It’s a cost that’s being perpetrated on people who live near them,” she said, adding it is “stripping wealth” from them “without any recompense.”

Pierpont said governments, including Ontario’s, are ignoring those reported risks. She is pushing for turbines to be placed 1.5 to two kilometres from homes, but said governments and turbine companies aren’t listening.

“None of them are willing to talk about setbacks that are really enough.”

Pierpont said wind is “just not a viable power source.”

Speakers attacked the “green left” for what Pierpont said were “lies” about health effects and the efficiency of wind energy.

The symposium began on the same day Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator, the body overseeing the province’s bulk electricity system, a nnounced new figures.

Electricity generation from Ontario’s commercial wind farms reached 24,022 megawatt hours Thursday, a press release from the agency said. It said those farms provided nearly 6% of the province’s electricity needs and powered almost 900,000 homes for the day.

Wind generators produced 1,056 megawatts Oct. 26, the release said, calling it “a new record for hourly output.”