April 19, 2013
Nova Scotia

No turbine for Valley Waste

By Jennifer Hoegg | April 19, 2013 | www.kingscountynews.caBy Jennifer Hoegg | April 19, 2013 | www.kingscountynews.ca

Kentville changed its bylaws and the province granted a COMFIT application, but Valley Waste won’t be going ahead with a wind turbine at its industrial park location anytime soon.

“It was a project that we thought had a lot of merit,” the regional waste management agency’s chairman and Kentville deputy mayor, Mark Pearl, said April 10. “I thought it tied in with our operation quite nicely.”

Pearl said onsite power generation fit with the agency’s mission statement and their new, environmentally-friendly administration building.

“We had buy in from the municipal partners through the process, but when it came to … green light it, a couple of our partners thought it wasn’t required at this time. It was a board decision and I wouldn’t want to highlight anyone” in particular, Pearl said.

General manager Ross Maybee said the capital outlay involved wasn’t attractive at budget time, even though it was “a natural potential add-on” to the energy-efficient building.

“While it fit in with the overall mandate, it wasn’t part of our core business,” he said. “It was a board consensus during our budget discussions. There were increases in the overall budget… and this was one area that there could be some savings in principle and interest costs by not proceeding with it as this point in time.”

Valley Waste had planned to add a 140-foot tall, 50-kilowatt turbine to the Kentville at a cost of roughly $350,000. Through the province’s Community Feed-In Tariff (COMFIT) program, Valley Waste was approved in March to generate power and sell it to Nova Scotia Power, offsetting the cost of electricity for its administration building. Maybee said the turbine would have generated a slight profit over 20 years.

Maybee said he is looking into how long the project can be put on hold and still be eligible for the COMFIT program. The turbine is expected to stay on the board agenda for future budget cycles.

“A fair bit of work was involved in the application process – and by Kentville council in terms of the bylaw amendments,” Maybee said. “But for this particular calendar year, it was put on the back burner.”

He’s hopeful the project will go ahead in the future, he said.

Valley Waste services approximately 85,000 residents from Hantsport west through Kings and Annapolis counties.


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/04/19/no-turbine-for-valley-waste/