A wind farm that the locals mostly like

Monday, March 5, 2012

Farmers in the Ridgetown area banded together, negotiated a profit-sharing agreement with the company and are generally happy with the result

by MIKE MULHERN

There's an 11,500-hectare wind farm in the Ridgetown area that shares profit even with neigh-bouring farmers who do not have a tower on their property. Maybe that's why, after a year of operation, there is only a whisper of opposition.

It all started in 2005-2006, when three different wind energy companies began to approach farmers about the possibility of building a wind farm in the area.

Reinout Von Martels was one of the first farmers approached. Coincidentally, he visited his parents in Holland around the same time and met with a turbine manager, who told him about a profit formula used by wind companies.

"That was a real eye-opener," Von Martels says. When he returned home, he spoke with nearby farmers, who had also been approached by wind companies, and they agreed to work together. Over the winter, they met several times in the hall at Morpeth, paying for the rental out of their own pockets and inviting municipal and industry people to speak at the meetings.

"We even had those wind farm operators come and speak to us and then, in the end, we had a committee selected from the landowners group," Von Martels says. The committee interviewed wind operators to decide which ones to work with.

"We had the formula," he says. "We knew how much money they were making so we had an idea and we did not want to have just a pittance", Von Martels says. "In the end, we were able to offer thousands of acres to the successful wind operator and everybody was in agreement."

The deal they struck with Renewable Energy Systems Canada Inc. (RES Canada) involves about 40 landowners, all farmers. People with towers are paid based on the megawatt output of their towers. Farmers who signed on to the project, and who do not have towers but have land within 750 metres of any tower, share in the overall profit of the project. While sharing with neighbours who just have housing lots was discussed, the group decided to restrict payments to farmers.

RES Canada's senior development manager, Nicolas Muszynski, says the total payment made to all landowners is just over $1 million annually, with two thirds going to landowners with towers and one-third to wind-zone payments. The wind-zone payments, made on a per-acre basis, are made to everyone, including those with towers.

Von Martels, a cash crop farmer, has two turbines on about 500 acres of land. He says the payment formula seems to suit everyone.

Organic dairy farmer Rudy Zubler was also an early proponent of the project. There are three towers near his house and he has no complaints. Nor, it seems, do his cows. "There's no difference in cow production or behaviour of any kind," says Zubler.

He says landowners are generally happy too. "We've got a system where everybody who signed up basically is going to get money. I myself would have felt like involving the house owners, but that was not the feeling of the group," he says. Involving a group makes the project more complicated up front, he says, but it's better in the end.

Organized opposition to the project comes from the Chatham-Kent Wind Action Group. Their spokesperson, Monica Elmes, farms about 86 acres in the area with her husband. Her research, she says, led her to oppose the project.

"I am surrounded by the Talbot Wind Project. It's been just a little over a year now. Basically it sucks," Elmes says, adding that family members have difficulty sleeping. "We can't enjoy our property," she says. "The noise is hugely excessive at times. It's very annoying."

Elmes says the Chatham-Kent Wind Action Group is "not a tightly structured group. Basically, we communicate by email and we get together when we feel the need to." She says members are from all parts of Chatham-Kent.

Elmes says the closest turbine to her home is 1,500 metres away, but she still feels of the effects because of noise. The view, she says, has been destroyed.

However, people involved in the wind project say the view has been improved by the use of a radar system that turns warning lights on only when a plane is approaching. The rest of the time, there are no lights shining from the towers. The view is also improved by the fact that all lines running from the towers to the substation are underground with no poles or overhead wires coming from the towers.

Noise is an issue for farmers with turbines, too, but they say the turbine company has made efforts to reduce the nose, modifying some turbines' wings to reduce noise and increase output.

Chris Gillard, who has a single turbine on his 100-acre property, says the swishing sound the turbines make "sounds like waves lapping at the beach. I sit there and I think a lot of people in this world pay a lot of money to have waterfront properties so they can listen to this noise, and these people are paying me."

He does allow that there are times when the noise is not so pleasant. "I would say one-tenth of one per cent of the time they really thump. I would consider it an obnoxious noise."

Rock Geluk, a pig farmer in the area, signed up with the Talbot Wind Farm, but it turned out that his property was outside the 750-metre area that would have allowed him to be in the wind zone and earn money from the project. Even though he does not benefit financially, Geluk says the project is a positive for the area.

"It's a project you never hear about because everything went so smoothly." BF

Facts about the Talbot Wind Project

• The Talbot Wind Project was the first wind development and construction project by Renewable Energy Systems Canada (RES) in Canada. It is now an Enbridge property (Enbridge has 100 per cent ownership).
• Completion was in December 2010 and it has a capacity of 99 megawatts, produced by 43 Siemens 2.3 MW turbines. Yield (power produced) is 300,000 MW-hours, enough to supply power to about 33,000 homes.
• The wind farm covers 11,500 hectares. More than 40 families participate in the project, some with more than one farm property.
• Total payments made to landowners is just over $1 million annually, with two-thirds going to landowners with towers and one-third divided among all the acres in the wind zone, which includes properties without towers but within 750 metres of a neighbouring tower or towers. BF