Solar farm forum gets heated

By JENNIFER BURDEN, THE PACKET & TIMES February 1 2011
There wasn’t an open chair at the Simcoe Solar Farm Awareness Project (SSFAP) symposium held at the Coldwater community centre on Saturday.
Approximately 200 people packed into the upper hall to hear the SSFAP presentation on the importance of preserving agricultural land from largescale solar farms and issues surrounding the construction of these projects.
There are 10 large-scale solar panel projects proposed by Recurrent Energy, a San Francisco-based power producer, in Simcoe County, located in Oro-Medonte, Severn, Springwater and Tay townships.
Marko Smiljanic, SSFAP member, kicked off the symposium with a presentation on the proposed projects and their impact on agricultural land, such as the stripping of topsoil and the unlikely probability that the land could ever be returned to its original use after the projects’ 30-year lease.
“We should not be displacing food producing land for this type of energy source,” Smiljanic said.
Smiljanic also criticized the Green Energy Act for its exclusion of municipal input on these kinds of projects.
A slate of special guest speakers also addressed the audience on issues surrounding the proposed solar farms.
Frank Coyle, retired civil engineer and former general manager for Simcoe Hydro, spoke about his experience building municipal substations for the production of electricity.
He said the proposed transformers on these solar panel farms are basically like a big substation. The concept is the same, they are moving electrons down the wire to produce energy, and with that process comes noise.
“There’s an awful hum to it,” he said. “If you put that hum in a rural territory, you will hear it for miles. It becomes the most annoying sound that you will ever experience…It’s a constant hum that you will always hear.”
Maurice McMillan, former employee of Orillia Water, Light and Power Commission, discussed the cost model for different forms of electrical generation.
“No cost impact study has been done on solar costing,” McMillan said.
At 64.2 cents per kWh paid by the Ontario Power Authority for all new ground-mounted solar panel project applications to the Feed-in-Tariff program (FIT), he said solar energy gets “really expensive.”
Bernard Pope, founder of Ontario Farmland Preservation, encouraged attendees to get involved in fighting the solar farm projects in their area.
“Any obstacle can be moved and the force that is needed is the good citizens and the persistent lobbying of their own,” Pope said.
Harold Boker, an organic farmer in Tiny Township who has been farming in the province since 1963, was approached two years ago by a company to lease his land for a solar project. He turned them down.
“I said ‘You better go packing,’ and I warned my neighbours,” Boker said. “This massive coercion talking young and old farmers into turning their farmland into solar farms… gives me goose-bumps.”
But not everyone in the room was vehemently opposed to the idea of solar farms in Simcoe County.
When the floor was opened up for a question and answer period, many stood up challenging the opinions and facts of the SSFAP.
One corn farmer inquired what the difference was between farming for the production of ethanol, a clean energy source that has been their livelihood for years, and putting solar panels on a farm.
Robinson replied the difference was that the farmland was still being worked by growing corn for ethanol. It was not being left to bake under these panels.
Robinson’s comment prompted Don Fenwick to stand up and dispel that “myth,” saying he had visited a 100-acre solar farm in Napanee and the soil was in great condition.
“It’s all false. It’s not true,” Fenw ick, who owns a farm on Foxmead Road, said.
The Napanee solar farm he visited had its rows of panels separated by a fair distance allowing the soil to stay healthy and continue to grow grass. Also, there was very little concrete used to secure the panels, he said.
Fenwick was approached by a company to build a solar farm on his property.
He declined, not because of the impact on the agricultural land, but because he doesn’t agree with the payment structure for solar energy.
“I don’t agree with the system that they’ve got. I’m not against green energy,” he said.
Nancy Robinson, chairperson of the SSFAP, was “extremely impressed” with the turnout. She had expected only 50 people to attend.
“To have more than 200 people show up is phenomenal,” she said. “The government really needs to stand up and go ‘Wow, if a small group of people can assemble that many people over this cause, maybe there’s an issue that needs to be addressed here.'”
After the meeting, Robinson said she was happy with people standing up and voicing their opinions — even if they weren’t in line with the SSFAP.
“Even the questions at the end which contradicted some of our statements or facts was all good because it’s creating debate and awareness. That’s what we want to achieve — awareness,” she said.
Robinson is hoping that as many people will attend the final public meetings on three of Recurrent Energy’s solar farm projects. If nothing is stopped after this meeting, Recurrent Energy can go ahead with their plans.
The final meeting for the Orillia 2 project, located on Line 13 N., Hawkestone, is Feb. 10 at 7:15 p.m. at the Tow nship of Oro- Medonte Community Arena, 71 Line 4 N.
The Midhurst 6 project meeting, located on Russell Road in Midhurst, is on Feb. 22 at 6 p.m. at the Elmvale Community Centre, 33 Queen St. W.
The Waubaushene 4 project meeting, located on Quarry Road in Coldwater, and the Waubaushene 5 project, located on Taylor Line in Coldwater, is on Feb. 23 at 6 p.m. at the Coldwater Community Centre, 11 Michael Anne Dr