JD Johnson, who was present at the Paintearth council meeting, along with his wife Sandra, wrote a 3-page letter to Paintearth County council expressing concerns with solar and wind farm ethics. The letter resulted in a lengthy and lively discussion at Paintearth County’s regular council meeting Jan 16.
The province, and the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC), should incorporate better ethics into the decision process, said CAO Michael Simpson.
“Maybe we can bring forward something that will help,” stating administration would work on it over the next several weeks to approach to help the province with their decision.”
The problem is when a landowner enters into an agreement with a solar or wind energy company, for which he gets some remuneration. Neighbours are impacted by the project visually or otherwise, but without remuneration.
The Johnson’s recommendation for the AUC is to “Get permission from all landowners within one kilometre of the proposed site first,” they stated in their letter.
Coun. Terry Vockeroth said that if a landowner agrees his land can be used for a proposed solar or wind project, “then up to a half million dollars will be spent doing surveys,” making sure the site does not infringe on indigenous grounds, environmental concerns and endangered plant and animal studies. If all the environmental impact studies are approved, only then does the AUC require a public hearing, which is mostly a formality.
Most of the time the AUC approves the project, which leaves a community divided, said Vockeroth.
This was the concern JD and Sandra Johnson elaborated upon in their letter, as well.
Todd Pawsey, director of community services, said he recently spent a day reviewing submissions to the AUC.
“The AUC has heard comments along this line a hundred times since Alberta’s moratorium on solar and wind projects. What they do with it remains to be seen. But, the best way to get in front of wind and solar applications is at the AUC level,” Pawsey claimed.
Vockeroth noted that, as with oil and gas projects, so with wind and solar projects, there are reputable companies and there are “bottom feeders” who are only interested in the money. They only go with minimum requirements of the law.
“Companies need to involve the community more,” said Vockeroth, adding the AUC should explain to companies, “if you want to put your project here, go talk to these people first. You’re going to have to talk to them,” rather not engaging with them over a six-year period.
“Good companies don’t do that. I’ve read the contracts. Make no mistake. Those contracts are getting sold to bottom feeders.
“Responsible companies get out ahead and do assessments before they go charging in signing up landowners,” said Vockeroth.
Wind and solar issues
Pawsey reported that wind turbines shut down at -30 C due to vibration issues. Solar panels do not generate power at night, nor under cloudy skies or snow-covered panels. The provincial government is right in placing a moratorium on new wind and solar projects until they get the power grid problem sorted out, said Pawsey.
Pawsey also stated the county needs fire access at solar farm sites. According the Pawsey, AUC does not require this.
“If a fire starts somewhere in the solar array it will have to burn to the other side before firefighters can respond,” Pawsey explained.
“Storage batteries are the size of sea cans stacked together if a company decides to store electricity on-site rather than sell it to the Alberta power grid. If AUC doesn’t come up with storage battery guidelines, then the county needs to,” said Pawsey.
If they burn, the Nickel Cadmium batteries the fire department needs access to control the spread of the fire while the batteries burn to the ground, which would take several days, explained Pawsey.
Lane Koster
ECA Review
