KAWARTHA LAKES-Neighbours of the Sumac Ridge Wind farm on Wild Turkey Road say they heard a grinding sound followed by a loud explosion this morning. When they looked out they saw one of the blades on a turbine was shredded.
The Sumac Ridge Wind Project is a 10.25 megawatt (MW) wind project with five turbines that were connected to the grid and began producing power in October 2017.
It is considered a Class 4 wind facility, and will feed an estimated 26,000,000 kWh annually into the local electricity grid.
The City of Kawartha Lakes opposed the project that is built on the Oak Ridges Moraine.
The project faced strong opposition by area residents as well due to potential impact on the environment. Resident and former councillor Heather Stauble said they were concerned about the health and integrity of the Moraine, “which performs many vital functions in protection of water quality and quantity, natural heritage, and the capture and sequestering of greenhouse gases and carbon.”
Stauble says this one turbine was of specific concern because it’s built on an area of high aquifer vulnerability. An aquifer is where water is held underneath the ground surface in the cracks and spaces between rock or sand and gravel. Rain and snowmelt re-charge or re-fill the aquifer by seeping down through the soil and becoming groundwater.
Water is filtered and cleaned naturally as it flows through the soil and sediments. Of course, deeper soil/sediment provides better filtration. Among other factors, how quickly water gets into the ground influences how vulnerable the groundwater is to contamination.
No one was injured. It’s unclear what cause the incident. We have an email in to the company requesting more information.
More to come….
