Building wind farms no breeze
My Clean Break column in today’s Toronto Star takes a look at growth opportunities in the wind-energy market as well as limitations to growth. One of the contentious issues I highlight is how some folks in the anti-wind movement work the system to slow down deployment of wind-energy projects. I point out that while environmental screening is important, and there are many issues to deal with — ranging from noise to ice-throw to proximity to residential housing — there’s also no reason to unnecessarily delay these projects by forcing them through rigorous environmental assessments. Unfortunately, a small group of people work the system to slow down and attempt to derail these projects, which by and large are supported by the majority in communities.
Perhaps I’m being too harsh… I’ve received both supportive and critical e-mails from this column. But when the alternative is coal and nuclear, am I really? Environmental assessments have become tools of opposition, not a productive mechanism for making sure good projects follow a smart and environmentally sound path.
NOTE: Ontario wind entrepreneur Glen Estill of Sky Generation Inc. has this interesting blog post on the environmental assessment for his own project. He highlights some of the ridiculous aspects of the process.
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
