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With its rolling green hills and picturesque towns, the landscape is pleasant just about anywhere on Prince Edward Island. Still, it doesn't get much better than Malpeque, where sand dunes and ocean views merge to create what Peter Sorensen calls an "idyllic rural landscape." That scenery is what attracted Sorensen and his wife, Pamela, to Malpeque from Charlottetown two years ago. But now, the winds of change are blowing through this quiet area of farmers, fishers and summer cottagers: they are facing the construction of a wind farm in their backyard.
Like the deluded knight Don Quixote who charged after imaginary giants, the citizens of Malpeque must feel as if they, too, are tilting at windmills. But in this case, the giant is real. With interests in everything from forestry to shipbuilding to oil and gas, New Brunswick's J.D. Irving Ltd. dominates business in the East. And its plan to build as many as 40 windmills by 2008 would also dominate Malpeque's landscape. Each wind turbine would stand 100 metres to the top of the massive blades, which would reach a diameter of 70 to 80 metres. The project is expected to cost about $100 million and could generate up to 75 megawatts at peak capacity, enough to power approximately 14,000 homes. The wind farm could also provide Irving with green energy credits--valuable in the post-Kyoto ratification world.
Wind power may be environmentally friendly, but building a wind farm in Malpeque is going to be anything but a breeze. Local NIMBYs--those who may support such a project as long as it's "not in my backyard"--are already lobbying against it on the grounds it would spoil the area's natural beauty. Sorensen claims that 90% of the area's 300 year-round residents are opposed to the project. "We don't want them," says Evelyn Mill, a homemaker who has lived in the area all her life. "They would be a blight on our community."
If the people of Malpeque believe the wind farm will destroy their community, why is Irving so determined to put it there? Extensive testing showed that the winds blew best off the bay, says Bill Borland, Irving's director of environmental affairs. And privately held Irving owns a lot of land in the area, which would enable it to march a line of turbines from Kensington, some 10 kilometres east, to Malpeque, leasing land from only six or seven property owners--a real advantage, since most wind farms have to lease from as many as 100. The location also places the windmills near the cable that transports power between the mainland and the Island, necessary should the company choose to export the energy. "Malpeque is a little unique," says Borland. "We've had people say, 'Why don't you just move it? Move it here; move it here; move it there.' You're certainly not going to build a wind farm where there's no wind."
As it turns out, wind farms may not be all that green. Critics argue that the enormous spinning blades don't just generate electricity, but also noise. US homeowners living near wind farms complain that they have to keep their windows shut to block the sound of the relentless whirling. Others contend the turbines interfere with radio and TV signals, decrease property values and are hazardous to birds--a particular problem for Irving's wind farm, since Malpeque Bay is a recognized wetland area and a known fly-way for waterfowl. Similar battles are being waged in places such as Cape Cod, where a US company is proposing to build 130 turbines on Nantucket Sound.
Canada is already home to wind farms in Alberta, Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan and the Yukon. At the beginning of 2002, these farms had enough capacity to power some 56,000 Canadian homes. And more are on the way. Calgary's Enmax Corp. and Vision Quest Windelectric Inc., for instance, recently announced plans to build a $100-million, 114-turbine wind farm in southern Alberta that would power more than 32,500 homes annually. And wind might well be the wave of the future for PEI. The province is dependent on electricity from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia--a situation that was recently reinforced when EnCana's Deep Panuke development, which was to supply natural gas to PEI, was put on hold. If the wind farm is successful, it may end up providing juice for another of Irving's business interests: Cavendish Farms, the fourth-largest processor of frozen potatoes in North America. The New Brunswick-based company uses between 10 and 12 megawatts of electricity annually, making it one of the Island's largest consumers of power.
Despite the province's dependence on spuds--Cavendish Farms' two PEI plants churn out more than 600 million pounds of potato products annually--the Sorensens and other Malpeque residents are determined to fight the project. They've asked Irving to respond to reports that windmills produce unbearable noise and hurl chunks of ice in high winds. Irving's Borland dismisses those and other concerns. Noise? Borland says the turbines won't be any louder than the background ambient sound in the average living room. Birds? Two have been reported dead at North Cape, on the Island's northwest end, where an eight-turbine project has operated since 2001. The trickier issue for Irving to tackle is aesthetics. "Where we really run into difficulty," says Borland, "is somebody who says, 'I don't like the looks of one, and I don't want one.' There is no answer to that."
Before Irving can construct its wind farm, the company faces a number of hurdles. Mitchell Murphy, PEI's Agriculture and Forestry Minister and the MLA for Kensington-Malpeque, says the wind farm will have to pass a full environmental assessment. The proposal, he points out, is not simply for 40 large turbines; it also includes electrical substations, high-capacity electrical lines and service roads. Murphy generally supports the idea of wind power and believes that both the province and the country must seek out renewable energy sources. "We think wind energy projects make sense to the prov-ince," says Murphy, "but wind energy projects for the sake of putting windmills up and creating green energy is not necessarily beneficial here." He's gone on record saying he would support a wind farm, as long as it puts the Island's energy needs first. Borland insists all the power will stay on PEI, unless there's a surplus.
Even if the juice from the windmills goes directly into PEI's grid, Sorensen insists that the wind farm and transmission lines would "shatter the beauty and aesthetics of the rural community." Fighting the Irvings with studies is a losing battle, he says; for every study showing harmful effects, admits Sorensen, Irving can find one to counter it. Although Borland suggests that wind farms, such as North Cape's turbines, attract tourists, Sorensen says that's no reason to put a wind farm in Malpeque. Besides, he says, the tourist season is only a few months a year. Nor does he believe Borland's contention that property values won't suffer: "I suspect any realistic or sane person is not going to buy a nice piece of property when they've got three or four windmills out their window."
Sorensen hopes the province's assessments, which are expected in mid-April, will conclude that the Irvings' wind farm is just a lot of bluster. "Who's going to buy the power?" he asks. "How are they going to get the power to their customers? I don't think the Irvings have been in the wind power generation business. I don't think it's their core business, so a project of that magnitude is fraught with a lot of risks." Borland admits that it could take five to 10 years before Irving starts to see any sort of return from its investment. He likens the wind initiative to tree planting, which requires a long time horizon. "Wind power at this point is marginal, at best," he concedes. "This is really a long-term plan. But if you don't get started, you won't be there when the time is appropriate."
The people of Malpeque shouldn't expect Irving's windmills to blow out of town anytime soon. If Irving passes the environmental assessment hurdle, it will start building one or two windmills this fall, with construction on the remaining 38 to begin in 2004. Once the windmills are up and spinning, Irving will be able to pocket energy credits for producing environmentally friendly juice--one credit for every tonne of carbon dioxide that would otherwise have been produced by fossil fuels.
But Borland says the advantages of the wind farm go beyond the obvious benefits to Irving. He says the project offers Prince Edward Island a chance to play a role in fighting climate change. "At some point, it's going to go in somebody's backyard," he reasons. "Rather than saying, 'Don't put it in my backyard,' you might say, 'This is a good idea, and this is the role I'll play--my contribution to climate change.'"
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