Terence Bay wind farm concerns fuelled by toppled turbine
Leaders of several community groups met with the wind farm developer to voice concerns
A toppled wind turbine in Point Tupper, N.S., fuelled concerns at a Terence Bay community meeting Wednesday night about a wind farm coming to the community in 2018.
Leaders of several community groups met with the wind farm developer, Chebucto Terence Bay Wind Field Limited (CTB), to talk about the project. The media was not allowed inside the meeting.
'Great concern'
"That actually gave us great concern," said Lynn Slaunwhite, organizer of the Friends of River Road, a community group that is against the project.
"The collapse, the company who owns the Point Tupper turbines is Renewable Energy Services Limited and they've partnered with Chebucto on our development."
Members of Slaunwhite's group had a sign with a picture of the broken Point Tupper turbine and a caption that referred to the incident as a "catastrophe."
CTB and Renewable Energy Services Limited are working together to build the three-turbine, 7.5-megawatt farm on River Road in Terence Bay.
Farm to open in 2018
The developer says they're on track to have the farm built, pending some last minute paperwork. The project has been in the works since 2011, received final approval in 2014 and is now slated to be finished in 2018.
The Terence Bay turbines will be Enercon E-92s, a different model from the one that collapsed in Cape Breton recently.
"One of the differences with our project is that we have concrete towers for our turbines, whereas they are steel towers at Point Tupper," said CTB president Terry Norman in a phone interview.
It was a steel E-82 tower that fell last Wednesday. Enercon, the manufacturer of the turbine, says its investigation has begun, and that the collapse was an isolated incident.
CTB says when that report is complete, community groups will be sent a copy of the findings.