National Wind Watch: Wind Energy News » Wind turbines to be discussed Wednesday

The Alliance for the Protection of Northumberland Hills has distributed flyers in the mail, plus sent e-mail notices to its membership, urging people to show their opposition to a proposed, Grafton-area wind turbine project, says Alliance spokesperson Gwyer Moore.

The Clean Breeze Wind Park Grafton LP project will be discussed at the company’s public meeting taking place between 5 and 8 p.m. at the Alnwick Civic Centre on County Road 45 this Wednesday, Jan. 9.

“We’ll ask questions and show our opposition to it,” Moore said in an interview Monday.

Like other anti-wind organizations, such as the objectors who attended a recent Liberal leadership candidate event, the objective is to stop any wind tower development in Northumberland. This local proposal is in an area of Nobel Road, The Scotts Line, Wilson Drive and Hoskin Road, all north of Highway 401 in Alnwick/Haldimand Township.

Part of the local Alliance’s strategy is to encourage the engagement of “local community landowners by informing them (turbines are) not in their interest” and that “it’s to the detriment of their neighbours” for wind turbines to be erected in the county. That’s because they can have a significant, adverse impact on property values, create noise, plus there are the risks of health issues, Moore said.

The most immediate impact, however, is reduced property values, he stressed.

The renewable energy project, according to Notice of the Public Meeting, “consists of five two-MW wind turbine generators, wind turbine foundations, transformers, gravel access roads, underground an/or overhead electrical cabling, and other ancillary works.”

There is a draft description of the project available at the township municipal office and on line at www.zeroemissionpeople.com, it also states.

Attempts to get comments about the wind turbine project from its Ottawa-based project manager, Bill York of Clean Breeze Wind Park Grafton LP, were unsuccessful by press time.