{"id":6909,"date":"2024-03-12T16:09:25","date_gmt":"2024-03-12T19:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=6909"},"modified":"2024-03-13T19:09:54","modified_gmt":"2024-03-13T22:09:54","slug":"wind-farm-developer-gets-ok-from-queens-to-set-up-on-milton-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2024\/03\/12\/wind-farm-developer-gets-ok-from-queens-to-set-up-on-milton-site\/","title":{"rendered":"Wind farm developer gets OK from Queens to set up on Milton site"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_6815\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6815\" class=\"size-large wp-image-6815\" src=\"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/TroutPond-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/TroutPond-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/TroutPond-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/TroutPond-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/TroutPond-2048x1366.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-6815\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Region of Queens approved the next step Tuesday for Mersey River Wind farm development in Milton. (Mersey River Wind)<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Queens County residents got one step closer on Tuesday to buying their electricity from wind power.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Region of Queens councillors approved a development agreement to allow a large-scale wind farm to go ahead in Milton.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Halifax-based Roswall Development Inc., the owners of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merseywind.ca\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mersey River Wind<\/a>, plans to build 33 wind turbines on about 80 hectares of Crown land west of the Mersey River.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Roswall promises to sell power from the wind farm directly to consumers, bypassing Nova Scotia Power, under the name Renewall Energy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It will offer electricity to large customers on the South Shore first, and then to residential customers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2024\/02\/14\/queens-residents-to-have-say-on-milton-wind-project\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Queens residents to have say on Milton wind project<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2022\/05\/27\/proposed-wind-farm-could-offer-queens-an-alternative-to-ns-power\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Proposed wind farm could offer Queens an alternative to NS Power<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The company says its power rates would be lower than Nova Scotia Power\u2019s. The project is expected to employ 100 people temporarily. It says it could employ up to 12 people full time after the farm is up and running.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">David Howell is Roswall\u2019s chief financial officer. He was at the council meeting on Tuesday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWe will be delivering the electricity across Nova Sotia Power\u2019s grid, paying for the use of the grid essentially. And people will have a choice, I hope, by the time we get to the end of 2025, to buy their power either from Nova Scotia Power or directly from our retail company.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Roswall is the first in the province to be awarded a licence to sell power directly to consumers under the Renewable to Retail program introduced by the provincial government in 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Under the municipality\u2019s land use bylaw, large-scale wind farms are not automatically allowed in the area as it\u2019s currently zoned. So the company had to apply for a separate agreement with the municipality.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As part of that process, the municipality held a public hearing on Tuesday morning before its regular council meeting. Only one member of the public spoke against the project. A Milton resident was concerned about the proximity of the turbines to houses in the area and an effect known as shadow flicker. That\u2019s essentially the shadow cast by the turbines on properties on a sunny day.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mitch Underhay, Roswall\u2019s development manager, said after the meeting that all homes are at least two kilometres away from the development. And one woods camp is about a kilometre away, but the company has reached an agreement with that landowner.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThere are limits of how many hours per year and minutes per day the shadow flicker can land on a receptor, which is usually a home. All of the homes around Milton are well outside of that, so they shouldn&#8217;t experience any shadow flicker at all.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Much of the land is on former Bowater Mersey property. Because of much of it is already cleared, Underhay said there should be minimal environmental impact on the site. Staff will be on site to clear any vegetation or trees that might interfere with power lines or turbines, he said. No chemical sprays will be used.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The owners of two concrete companies spoke in favour of the development agreement. Bridgewater Ready Mix and South Shore Ready Mix hope to win some work with the project.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Joel Westin, president and owner of Bridgewater Ready Mix, told councillors there are many advantages to the project &#8211; local jobs, greener energy and potentially lower power rates.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWe in the ready mix industry also have a commitment to net zero and to achieve that we need renewable power. And we intend to become customers of the Mersey Wind project once it starts.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mayor Darlene Norman said the project could eventually generate up to $800,000 in tax revenue for the municipality.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cIt is a good thing for Queens County and it was wonderful to have 100 per cent approval from council on this matter,\u201d she said in an interview.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cIt\u2019s a big project for Queens and it is one that should be welcomed by people who understand that green energy is the important energy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Securing the development agreement with Queens County was one the last steps before the company can begin construction. Howell said it is in the final stages of working out a lease agreement for the Crown land in Milton.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The development agreement approval is still subject to an appeal process, until April 4.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Howell said they hope to begin construction by this summer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Email: <a href=\"mailto:rickconradqccr@gmail.com\">rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-6909-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/merseywindapprovalstorymar1224.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/merseywindapprovalstorymar1224.mp3\">https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/merseywindapprovalstorymar1224.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Queens County residents got one step closer on Tuesday to buying their electricity from wind power. Region of Queens councillors approved a development agreement to allow a large-scale wind farm to go ahead in Milton. Halifax-based Roswall Development Inc., the owners of Mersey River Wind, plans to build 33 wind turbines on about 80 hectares [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[79,1879,1076,1881,1872,279,1746,102,1880,746,1882,744,1878,741,743,1748],"class_list":["post-6909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-darlene-norman","tag-david-howell","tag-development-agreement","tag-electricity","tag-joel-westin","tag-mersey-river","tag-mersey-river-wind","tag-milton","tag-mitch-underhay","tag-nova-scotia-power","tag-power-rates","tag-renewable-energy","tag-renewall-energy","tag-roswall-development-inc","tag-wind-farm","tag-wind-turbines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6909"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6919,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6909\/revisions\/6919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}