Applications to develop offshore wind on Great Lakes overwhelms ministry
Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources says it has received more than 100 applications representing more than 500 wind-energy projects on the Ontario side of the Great Lakes. Overwhelmed, the ministry has temporarily stopped taking applications until it can review what it has and make sure proper processes are in place for granting approvals. Minister Donna Cansfield gave the update at an offshore wind energy conference in Toronto, where developers and investors across Europe, the U.S. and Canada gathered to talk about the North American opportunity. For more detail on what was discussed at the conference, click here.
Of interest, Vestas has just opened a North American offshore turbine sales office in Toronto. From what I understand the location could have been either Boston or Toronto. It’s easy to read into the choice of Toronto as an early indication that the company is considering a greater presence in Ontario, but it’s too early to tell. Also, this morning Toronto Hydro got approval to put an anemometer in Lake Ontario off the Scarborough Bluffs, where the utility has interest in building a 100 MW offshore wind project. Expect an uproar from anti-wind folks in the area who have consistently and forcefully protested, not only the proposal, but just the idea of putting an anemometer on the lake.
Tags: offshore wind, Toronto Hydro, Vestas
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.
November 3rd, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Some of the people in that area will have strokes over all of this, I think.
Especially in the newly-developed areas along the lake, which are sold with the appeal of being lakeside property but are actually separated from the lake by railway (puncutated by very sporadic access tunnels and ugly concrete parks). Not only are the houses built on clay soil which is difficult to grow in, but the mosquitoes are terrible, the lake is smelly, and when you do make it to the lake, you can see the Pickering nuclear power station on the shore, in the distance.
So, windmills on top of this may ruin the illusion for good
I guess it really was too good to be true.
January 24th, 2010 at 9:02 am
[...] $84 billion of proposed investment along the South Coast of Ontario also ONLY made possible by the Ontario Green Energy Act (100 projects, Ontario waters only). [...]