A Commentary by Doug Draper
On a clear day, you can gaze across the wide opening to the Niagara River from Fort Erie and see eight windmills along the shores of Lackawanna, New York, just south of Buffalo where the furnaces of the once mighty Bethlehem Steel mill used to roar.
Wind farm in Buffalo, New York. None of this for Ontario. We're too afraid to do this. Photo by Doug Draper
As the gull flies, these windmills are two or three kilometres away. Yet if you look hard enough, you can see their blades turning slowly in the breeze blowing off Lake Erie, generating enough electricity between the group of them for more than 70,000 homes.
I crossed the Peace Bridge recently and cut off the 190 beltway rounding Buffalo, onto a boulevard along the shores of Lake Erie to get a closer look at these wind mills. And as much as the wind-power naysayers in our region and province may not care to read them, here are a few of the things that went through my mind as I drove near.First, these tall, slender towers look majestic along a stretch of lakeshore that communities in the Buffalo area have been gussying up with recreational parks, restaurants and marinas for pleasure boaters. Far from being seen as a blight on a landscape, I get the impression from everything I’ve read and heard that they are more of an attraction that have become real working model for stimulating more awareness for Buffalo area residents of the potential of greener energy alternatives.
Second, I could not help but think; ‘So near and yet so far away!’
What I mean here is that because of all of the rising opposition to wind turbines among residents on our side of the border, along with all of the political fighting at the provincial level, we can’t seem to get very much past the drawing board with wind energy.
Not to say you can’t drive along the shores of Lake Huron without finding a handful of wind turbines, as I did five or so years ago for a story I wrote for this newspaper on the possibility that Niagara’s regional government might work in partnership with St. Catharines-based Rankin Construction to build and operate four or five wind mill towers near the shores of Lake Erie in Wainfleet. Then there is the wind farm in Wolfe Island, off the shores of Kingston, where there are now more than 80 towers making up one of the largest alternative energy projects of its kind in Canada.
Yet five years after my visit to the wind turbines along Lake Huron, the Wainfleet plan looks dead. Another proposal by a private concern called Niagara Region Wind Corp. for a large wind farm in the western end of Niagara, in West Lincoln and neighouring communities, is experiencing is being greeted with strong opposition from residents who are concerned about everything from what these high towers might do to their property values to stories they’ve heard about the rotating blades of the turbines causing noise, headaches and stress, sleepless nights and other health effects.
Wind energy has also been caught in a political crossfire where the the province’s Liberal government, with its Green Energy Act, is vowing to make Ontario a “green energy leader,” even if it means using the act to deny local municipalities the same right they would have with a retail mall or any other development, where these wind farms will go. Then there is Conservative opposition leader Tim Hudak, who has promised to tear up the Green Energy Act if he becomes premier and NDP Andrea Horwath who sounds like she is trying to come up the middle with a pledge to give local municipalities more say in where wind farms should go.
All of this has left fledgling companies in Ontario like DMI Industries in the Stevensville community of Fort Erie, that makes parts for wind turbines and has employed up to 180 people, wondering if there is any future in the province. An exciting plan the City of Port Colborne is pursuing with Rankin and other private companies to be a hub of wind turbine manufacturing in the Great Lakes region also appears to be on a wait-and-see mode.
Meanwhile, plans are moving forward to build six more wind mills next to those in the Buffalo area and New York State is striving to build enough wind farms in the next decade or so to look after half the state’s electricity needs.
All reports are that China, as dirty as it has been with coal-burning, etc, is moving forward aggressively on the wind energy front.
So what are we going to do in Ontario while we are screaming; ‘No wind farm in my backyard’? If we say no to wind and solar energy, will we accept new coal-fired or nuclear plants in our backyard, because they have to go somewhere too?
Let’s not cling to the status quo until we burn our last pile of coal?
(Niagara At Large encourages you to share your views on this post in the comment boxes below. Please remember that we only post comments by people willing to share their real first and last names.)
Niagara At Large 
I find wind turbines to be of an extraordinary beauty, and their physical beauty is enriched by the knowledge of what they can contribute to clean energy and clean air.
When I stood beneath one near Dunnville, I heard a sound akin to a creaking ship in a wind, nothing more. It was actually a pleasant whisper of a sound.
Some people object to them (or are they objecting to change?), but the turbine corporations have made accomodations to address public concerns. For example, the new ones proposed for the Lincoln area apparently make no sound at all.
China is moving very fast on alternate energy. They’re trying to corner the market on solar panels (heavy government subsidies), and they’ll likely succeed.
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Why do so many (uninformed) people think that there is a choice between wind turbines and nuclear power (or coal or gas)? Wind turbines do NOT replace any of the need for nuclear, coal or gas-fired plants. The reason is that we do not have any way to STORE wind-generated energy. So it’s only “on” when the wind is blowing hard enough. Try keeping your house warm in the winter with that. We are also in a major flyway, where at least two major bird migration routes come up over our Great Lakes. Wind turbines kill birds indiscriminately, as well as bats. NO ONE is allowed to kill Bald Eagles, for example. Oh, except wind turbines, they are ALLOWED by new legislation, by the Ministry of Natural Resources, to kill a number of endangered species every year. Isn’t that nice? So enjoy your supposed “green” power, subsidized to the hilt by all our tax dollars, and full of greenwash. Let’s stop being a bunch of suckers and look beyond the hype.
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I used to spend quite a bit of time in southern California and I was always awestruck by the fields of windmills so prevalent down there.
Seeing row after row of these massive machines (San Gorgonio Pass Wind Farm outside Palm Springs has over 3200 turbines!) made me feel like I was in a sci-fi movie (or Europe) and always gave me hope for the future.
What is more desirable, shiny white towers and blades or black clouds spewing from a smokestack? I sure know which one is healthier for us.
We like to think we’re a little more broad-minded and progressive than our gun-toting, bible-thumping cousins to the south, but clearly we are lagging behind when it comes to the environment.
I too was over in Buffalo recently, taking pictures along the waterfront. It’s amazing how the city is cleaning itself up and embracing new technologies for a brighter, cleaner tomorrow. Good for you Buffalo!
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I am so pleased to see your comments Doug! My partner, Sandra, and I are great fans of wind power and would love to install a system to provide electricity for our home. We are situated in a good location, right on the brow of the Niagara Escarpment. What holds us back is the ridiculous situation established by the Ontario government and Ontario Hydro (or whatever they call themselves now!). The government has set a ridiculous level of 80 cents per KW/H as what Hydro will pay for your excess power. Sounds good, doesn’t it? But then you also have to buy an $800/year licence in order to feed back into the grid, in addition to the exhorbitant cost of the equipment needed to feed into the power grid. Wouldn’t it make more sense to pay less to buy the excess power from the small generator, and get rid of the extra fees. I guess the Keep It Simple Stupid method just doesn’t apply!
As for the big wind farms, I have seen them up close in southern Saskatchewan and was extremely impressed by their beauty. I also belong to a railway fan website based in the U-S and have seen photos of trains in the desert areas of southern California with huge windfarms in the background. I could go on and on, but until we can overcome the NIMBIES and the bureaucratic stupidty, we will continue to waste a free resource (the wind) and squander our oil, natural gas and coal — none of which are free or unlimited in supply!
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Part of the beauty of wind turbines is that the technology is always improving. As an example, a recent model can now produce more energy than a host of the older models.
As for wind variables, if it is calm in one area, other areas could still be windy. That’s why the turbines are spread out.
Birds and bats? I’m sure the technology will improve here as well, but the stats I read indicate that cars, highrises etc. kill far more birds and bats.
China is advancing by leaps and bounds in wind power as well, but again, they’re currently feeling impacts from AGW, which often changes the equation.
Interesting that Welland was courting a solar energy corporation, but again, it was a Chinese company.
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I agree with Will and Mark. I find the wind turbines elegant and beautiful. What about the windmills in East Anglia that have been there for centuries or the windmills in the Netherlands? They’re not ugly! I went around the eastern UK one summer just taking photos of the windmills.
There are now MANY wind turbines along Lake Huron now, not just a few, all the way from Grand Bend to beyond MacGregor Point. There are also many around Pori Burwell and the South East of the province. I haven’t heard of any health problems . I have also been at the base of one and noticed no unpleasant noise. Denmark provides the majority of it’s electric power by wind turbine.
I would not object to a turbine installation near me. I have also recently noticed a lot of homes, especially farms that have cement pads with one or more solar panels and homes with them on the roof. What pollution could those cause? There should be gov’t incentives to home owners to install such devices but then the utility companies (again here comes the greed factor) would certainly object.
Is the propaganda against them similar to the propaganda previously provided by the tobacco companies saying that smoking was not only harmless but “9 out 0f 10 doctors smoke Marlboros”?
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Great looking majestic windmill field (as far as you can see) going north through Wisconsin as you pass by Milwaukee – a sight to behold – I will see it again in the next couple of weeks.
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The New York Power Authority just pulled the plug on the Western New York windmill farm project. To big a drain on the state finances.
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Just so there is no confustion, the wind farm project I am writing about in this post is an on-shore facility outside of Buffalo and is not the massive off-shore project Mr. Strugar is referring to in his comment above. It is that off-shore plan, that would have involved building hundreds of wind towers in Lake Erie from the Buffalo area and almost all the way to a region of the lake off the shores of Pennsylvania that the plug has been pulled on. Those kind of off-shore facilities reportedly face far more significant environmental and economic challenges. The expansion of the on-shore wind farm I described and photographed for the above post is moving ahead. Doug Draper, Niagara At Large.
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I am simply referring to the fact that all is not rosy as far as windmill farms are concerned. Other factors enter into the equation such as the high costs I mentioned. A few minutes ago I read of the plunging property values near these sites. There are more things being affected not just the cost and cleanliness of power.
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Some of the huge problems with wind energy are its high cost, it’s intermitancy and connectivity to the current grid. The McGuinty governments haphazard foray into this form of energy has never addressed these real concerns. The lack of a cogent energy strategy based on sound scientific, economic and engineering principles rather than a perceived need created by climate change fear mongering, is necessary.
Wind and solar have there place in the energy mix, no question about it, yet our elected officials of all political stripes have not really done an effective job on this portfolio. A balance of mixed sources of energy is what’s needed now and in the near future with an investment in technology to develop new sources of electricity.
The headlong rush into renewable energy has created some expensive disasters and will continue to do so. People certainly won’t care when the costs outweigh the perception.
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Last time I checked, it’s the nuclear industry that has huge costs, not the alternative energy sources. We’re still paying debt retirement charges from nuclear costs.
The of course there’s safety (the Darlingtom plant is located on a fault line). Many Japanese thought it would never happen to them,and the information we’re getting about radioactivity issues there is not to be trusted.
(I won’t get into a drawn out debate this time though, even though I might enjoy it, sorry.)
Pollution from coal etc. is a health hazard, increases health care costs etc.
Many deaths associated with pollution. It goes on and on.
And there’s AGW…
We need to be bold now with alternate energy.
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What is wrong with allowing research and experimentation into “green energy”, as opposed to creating large scale projects that cost a lot of money? The smaller projects can be monitored and eventually developed in a way so that they can deliver efficiently and cost effectively at some point without throwing billions at it now and having it put on our hydro bills..
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It’s primarily the nuclear debt on hydro bills that keeps them high, rather than the alternate energy initiatives.
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Ever hear of Solyndra?
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Wind energy will only become affordable and generally acceptable when they commercialize a non-invasive way to do it with no moving parts. This is not as far-fetched as it sounds; “Surface Effects” technology is in development at universities here in Ontario, Nevada, Italy and likely China. Like a lot of things, giant industrial turbines are vestiges of obsolete technology – you might say the buggy-whip of the day. As long as the technology is complicated, out of reach and politicized, it will be prone to profiteering and ideological controversy. Other than that, wind turbines are great.
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