In regards to the proposed solar farm, I would like to bring some facts to the discussion. As a retired supervising distribution Engineer with Hydro One I have been involved with many wind and solar farms.
The first issue that I would like people to understand is that our distribution system was not designed to add generation facilities at the end of the line. Since Hydro One began to connect wind and solar farms (which was forced on them by the OEB) they have been plagued with voltage regulation. Hydro One spent millions of dollars in research and development of new control systems which helped them better regulate the voltage arriving at your home. Unfortunately they are still having issues in the province and a new design may be required to allow them to operate in areas that don’t require the power locally. While we wait, Hydro One personnel are going out on trouble calls for fluctuating voltage and then paying damage claims to the customers on a daily basis. $$$$$.
The next issue is the cost of wind/solar energy. The Ontario government offers subsidies to install green energy. The developers use the money to build new facilities. After connection, they receive .39 cents per kWh for solar (average retail price is .12/kWh). Due to these costs, the price of electricity has skyrocketed since the green energy act. Sadly wind and solar combined only account for 1% of production. Only winners here are the developers.
Another concern is the environmental footprint of the facility. Taking viable farm lands out of production and covering them with solar panels is not good. They create massive amounts of heat and change the micro climate in the area. There is no crop that I’m aware of that would prosper under the panels. The environmental issues start right from the mining of the minerals to make the panels to the manufacturing, and lastly the disposal of the toxic waste at their end of life.
I could provide many other reasons to reject this project, but just based on these issues alone, council needs to send them elsewhere to pitch there snake oil.
Kevin Carson,
Lion’s Head
