Letter to the Editor

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Dear Editor,

Ms. (Jutta) Splettstoesser’s recent letter describing an idyllic scenario of communities living happily amongst their industrial wind turbines is both unrealistic and misleading.  

She does not address the many technical issues that wind and solar present to the distribution grid due to their intermittent nature, nor does she mention that the power is often produced at times when it is not needed.

Ontarians pay a high premium for this surplus generation, and then pay our neighbours to take it. This is not an economically-viable situation. The issues of property devaluation, noise and infrasound, health effects and abandoned homes, bird mortality, and the misery and hardship caused by ever-increasing electricity costs are also ignored by Ms. Splettstoesser. 

Ontario’s energy supply is already much cleaner than most other countries, with over 70 per cent from emissions-free nuclear and hydro-electric. The truth of the matter is that the more wind and solar we install, the more fossil fuel will have to be burned as back-up generation for the unreliable and non-dispatchable renewables. 

We cannot base our energy supply on ideology. Our economy, our standard of living, and our survival depend upon reliable and affordable sources of power. Given Ontario’s financial situation, the government needs to direct our scarce resources toward technically- and economically-viable sources such as nuclear, hydro-electric, natural gas and geothermal. 

Lynne Di Cocco

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Saturday, October 29, 2011