While a group formed here to oppose wind turbines, one resident believes his plans are unlikely to cause as much controversy.
Willem Roubos, of Concession 12 in old Maryborough, said in an interview his wind turbine plan is what the provincial government had in mind long before it introduced its controversial Green Energy Act.
“I have a FIT [feed in tariff]contract,” Roubos said. “I’ve been working on this already for years.”
The turbine he proposes for his farm is just over 200 feet high. “They are not like the wind farms,” he said of controversial projects such as the recently approved one near Arthur in Mapleton Township.
Roubos is in business with John Hogg, of Harriston, who runs Free Breeze Energy Systems, a company operating since 1999, and builds and sells smaller wind turbines. It is the sole distributor for wind turbine manufacturer RRB Energy, has an office in England and works in the United States. Its Canadian office is in Waterloo.
“He started this business 12 years ago,” Roubos said of Hogg. “He works in the United States.”
He added with the reception wind companies received in Canada, and Ontario in particular, that makes business there “a lot easier than around here.”
Then again, Roubos is not particularly a big fan of the Green Energy Act himself. “The smaller guys have to go through the same stuff” as the big American companies flooding into Ontario.
Roubos said people he does business with are private business people or farmers but, “Here, we have quite a struggle to get it going.”
He has met with former Minister of Environment John Wilkinson, and hopes to get a turbine for his farm within the year. Equipment is already on his property, but there are steps he must complete. That includes a public meeting on Jan. 23 from 5 to 8pm at the Moorefield community centre for his 500kW turbine.
Instead of operating with huge wind farms, Roubos said Free Breeze concentrates on smaller, private projects.
“We installed one by a high school in the States,” he said, adding that turbine is the same size as the one he is proposing. That project was spearheaded by students wanting to promote green energy, and it went up “with support from the whole community. It is standing in the schoolyard. Everybody is supportive.”
He said private projects like that were what the provincial Liberal government first envisioned. “Nobody acted on that. That’s why the Green Energy Act came through,” he said.
Roubos has a 200 acre farm and said the nearest house is 800 metres away from it. That house is his own residence.
“It’s coming in the middle of our farm if everything goes okay,” he said. “I have the towers already. They are laying on the farm.” He said he has already held one public hearing and had signs up advertising his proposal. That was about four years ago and “nobody showed up.”
Nonetheless, Roubos said his proposal faces the same rules for approval as other wind farms and he noted there are penalties coming after next year “if you don’t produce hydro. We are plugging away at it.”
