Municipality wants $200,000 deposits for wind turbines - CBC Article

Note: There's already over 14,000 abandoned turbines in the States. No one wants the responsibility or the expense of dismantling them.

Mayor of Plympton-Wyoming says bylaw protects residents


CBC News Posted: Mar 5, 2012 8:50 AM ET


A Lambton County municipality is making sure it won't get stuck with the bill if developers walk away from industrial wind farms.

Plympton-Wyoming, east of Sarnia, passed a tough new bylaw that requires developers to deposit $200,000 for each wind turbine they want to build.

"We need to make sure that residents are not on the hook to rebuild roads or to take down turbines when the subsidies are gone and everybody takes off," said Marcelle Brooks is with Middlesex Lambton Wind Concerns.

Mayor Lonny Napper said council is just trying to protect its people in case developers walk away from the used turbines in 30 years.

"Some of these companies, they come in and some of their credentials may be a little weak and we don't want to be left holding the bag with a whole bunch of wind turbines out here," he said. "We feel we owe it to our taxpayers and we owe it to Ontario if they're dumped in our lap."

The biggest development proposed in the municipality is a 29-turbine installation by Suncor. That translates into $5.8 million dollars in deposits.

Plympton-Wyoming also passed a bylaw saying a turbine has to be 2 km away from a home. The provincial guideline is 550 metres.

Napper is not sure if the municipality can enforce the setback distance