Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News
The Newsletter of the Great Lakes
Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund
The Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News is the newsletter of the Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund, published five times per year. The News is intended to provide a forum for the free exchange of ideas among citizens and organizations working to protect aquatic habitats in the Great Lakes Basin.
Volume 15, Number 6 • Spring 2007
Lake Huron
Basin Update - Ontario Side
Blowin’ in the Wind: Can Alternative Energy
Sources Protect Our Waters?
Contributed by Ziggy Kleinau
The coast of southeastern Lake
Huron has been an attractive wind
energy market in recent years.
Mostly in stages of planning, a
number of wind farms are finding
the winds off Lake Huron an
attractive place to be.
EPCOR, a large energy company from
Alberta, began the development of
Kingsbridge I Wind Power Project, a
40 MW wind-farm, situated near the shoreline community of
Goderich, ON. It began construction of the project in early 2005.
The 22 turbines can reportedly produce enough power for about
12,000 homes annually. The Kingsbridge I project was to be
immediately followed by Kingsbridge II, which would have
added another 69 turbines. That project is now on hold. In
addition, another energy company, Enbridge, had plans to install
110 turbines just north of the lakeshore town of Kincardine. Local
opposition began raising concerns about setbacks, public health
and environmental impacts on birds.
About 20 kilometres to the north of Kincardine is the Bruce
Nuclear Power Development (BNPD), the largest civilian nuclear
power facility in North America. A small organization of vocal
wind farm opponents emerged from the Kincardine area to
challenge these wind energy developments.
While this observer prefers smaller, distributed wind power
development over 50, 60, or more unit wind farms on a limited
parcel, one has to consider the ultimate benefit from this type of
energy generation. No fuel required, no air or water pollution, no
waste to be kept safe for thousands of years at huge cost.
And they don’t need water for cooling like nuclear reactors who
actually contribute to climate change pouring millions of liters
of cooling water a minute up to 10 degrees warmer back into the
lakes, increasing the rate of evaporation.
With all the talk of possible terrorist attacks, wind farms would
not be attractive targets as they don’t release deadly radiation.
All these points have to be taken into consideration.Wind energy
projects are funded with private capital, not taxpayers’ funds,
thereby not saddling our children and grandchildren with
billions of debt on top of what is already there from existing
nuclear plants.What we need is to take a good look at where we
can eliminate unnecessary power use, cut down on our
electricity bills and give wind and solar generators a fair chance
to show that they can fill the void from phased-out polluting
and inefficient power generation!
Contributing author, Ziggy Kleinau, is coordinator of Citizens for
Renewable Energy, a non-profit organization incorporated in
1996. He also served for 7 years as Regional Director for Lake
Huron on the Board of Great Lakes United.
For more information, please contact: cfre@web.ca.
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