On November 30, 2002, there was a big celebration to welcome the first wind power to the peninsula. The turbine had been built over the course of the summer, and the construction process attracted a lot of attention. Visitors and locals alike stopped to take photographs of the crane and trucks, and the large blades and tower sections. The Peninsula had never seen anything like it. After all, it was just the 9th commercial scale wind turbine in the whole province. The south turbine was built first. It produced first power on November 27th 2002.
I knew we had to celebrate.
I remember asking Councilor Tom Boyle if he thought anyone would come to the grand opening. He thought they would.
The celebration began at the wind turbine. Hundreds of people braved the howling winds, snow and sleet, from the season’s first snow. BPEG worked the parking. The cars were parked all the way up the laneway, and spilled out onto the road, so that even the OPP stopped to see that traffic could get by. A kite flying club from Guelph displayed their craft. There was a ribbon cutting, and a few short words – it was too cold to stay long. Then we headed back to Rotary Hall.
The hall was packed, including the balcony. The Lioness (now the S.W.A.N.S) looked after the food, but had to make a run to Hellyers for resupply. I had asked for something different than funeral food (crustless sandwiches), and they came through. Rotary looked after the hall and the bar. Bill Murdoch, the Progressive Conservative MPP, Ovid Jackson, the Liberal MP, Steve Gilchrist, the Progressive Conservative commissioner of renewable energy, and Mayor Milt McIver were all there. The neighbours and interested community members were there. The contractors were there. I had friends and family there from the south, but some of them had turned around because the weather. John Francis, the publisher of this newspaper was there. In a phone call after the event, he raved about the hummus that the Lioness had provided. Apparently moving away from funeral food had been a good idea.
The project was sold to another firm in 2011, but continues to operate today supplying locally produced power to the Peninsula. The two northern turbines were added in 2006. At the time of their completion, the three turbines produced an average of 20% of the power consumed on the Peninsula north of Colpoy’s Bay. Or to put it another way, the wind farm produces enough electricity each year to run 4,300 electric vehicles. 4,300 gas vehicles would use $11 million worth of gasoline/year, at $1.50/litre.
With all the talk of climate change, it seems a good time to acknowledge the contribution of renewable energy over the years to the Peninsula.
Glen Estill,
Founder of Sky Generation
