March 9, 2012
Nova Scotia

Developer seeks to build additional turbines at Lingan

By Erin Pottie-Cape Breton Post, www.capebretonpost.com 8 March 2012

LINGAN – A Canadian wind turbine developer is hoping to see an additional six dotting the Lingan skyline.

During a public meeting held Thursday evening at the Lingan Parish Hall, area residents viewed plans for a wind farm expansion by Sprott Power Corp., which owns Glace Bay Lingan Wind Power Ltd.

There are already seven wind turbines located in Lingan and plans to construct an eighth this fall within the existing facility.

The first two of seven wind turbines were constructed in 2006, after a project conceived by Cape Breton Power Ltd. was sold to Glace Bay Lingan Wind Power Ltd.

As part of a recent request for proposals related to Nova Scotia’s commitment to generate 40 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020, Sprott is now seeking to develop five more wind turbines in 2013.

“There is an upcoming (request for proposals) for renewable energy in Nova Scotia and as part of that we would look to participate …. by expanding the facility by up to five turbines,” said David Eva, Sprott’s project management director. “There are seven there right now, generating approximately 16 megawatts of energy.”

Under the proposal, two turbines would be constructed at the site of the existing facility, while another three would be located to the west of the existing turbines, Eva says.

“The closest homes would be in excess of the 500-metre setbacks. That’s well outside of the requirement for sound impacts and whatnot,” Eva said.

According to Sprott officials, the purpose of the meeting was to gather feedback from the public to be incorporated into future designs and planning in hopes of gaining the approval of the community.

“The project has been in operation at the existing facility for over five years now,” said Eva of the existing turbines. “It’s ran well with generally positive feedback from the community and people are happy to see these kind of projects come to Cape Breton.”

The E70 turbines that have already been built in Lingan have a 70-metre rotor diameter of the blades and a height of 64 metres.

Eva said the turbines the company is proposing will likely be E82 turbines, which have 82-metre rotor diameter blades and measure 78 metres in height.

Malcolm Campbell, who lives in nearby New Waterford, said he was happy to hear the project will follow Ontario guidelines for wind turbine setbacks.

“I thought it was excellent, they answered all the questions I had,” said Campbell of the meeting.

Campbell, who goes walking in the area of the wind turbines almost every day, said he’s never had a problem with any of the giant structures.

As part of the construction of the five previous turbines, a post construction monitoring study was conducted by Cape Breton University professor David McCorquodale, which found the best estimate of bird mortality due to the turbines is less than one bird per turbine per year.


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/03/09/developer-seeks-to-build-additional-turbines-at-lingan/