A Plympton-Wyoming man is frustrated NextEra is earning $6 million for not producing power, but is only providing $25,000 to the community living with its turbines.
NextEra is the operator of the Cedar Point Wind Farm around Camlachie. Santo Giorno was one of the member of the advocacy group WAIT-PW which tried to stop the project from moving forward.
The turbines have been up and running for almost two years now but the company meets regularly with its community liason committee.
When the group met Thursday, Giorno noticed the money the company contributed to the community was $25,000. That, he says, is a very small amount considering the amount of money NextEra is making from its wind contracts with the provincial government. “Cedar Point’s actual capacity output is approximately 263,000 megawatts per year.  At a contract price of $135 per megawatt, ratepayers would be required to pay about $35 million per year to Cedar Point.” And some of that money, he says, came without making any power at all.
The IESO, which regulates power production in the province, recently asked the companies to produce 20 per cent less power – they agreed, as long as they continued to be paid. Giorno estimates NextEra could have made up to $6 million without producing any power at all.
At the meeting, the company also presented its estimates of birds which were killed by the turbines. Giorno says the company monitors a cluster of the turbines between May and October to monitor how many birds were killed
Giorno says NextEra’s report shows “the mortality rates for both birds, raptors and bats for 2017 were within the guidelines established by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry” and that 52 birds, including two raptors; and 52 bats. The report didn’t state whether the bats were endangered.
In 2016, Giorno says, four raptors were killed – that’s above the MNR guideline.