Aesthetic argument against windmills…really?

Riding a bicycle all day long for a week, along the shores of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, gave me plenty of time for contemplation. Cruising along the back roads and trails of Ontario’s seemingly endless shoreline, I really appreciated the beauty of this province. It is outstanding, and well worth preserving.

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I guess not everyone will agree on exactly what is beautiful and what is not…but when it comes to the NIMBY’s argument that windmills are an eyesore, I just don’t get it. After seeing the likes of the Darlington Nuclear Plant, the Lennox I & II Plants, the Durham Regional Energy Centre and all the other power generation plants that dot the shores of Lake Ontario, windmills are a huge improvement, at least to my eyes, not to mention to my lungs!

 

How many armed guards do you need for a windmill? Personally, I find this pretty disturbing

Sign outside Darlington Nuclear Plant

 

And how much CEM data monitoring do we need to do on a windmill? The answer is NONE!

 

Sign outside the Durham York Energy Centre showing ongoing emissions monitoring results

 

How attractive is this new Lennox II natural gas plant that is going in near Bath Ontario, right beside the original plant?

Lennox II natural gas plant construction site

 

Lennox Natural Gas Plant, with a field of transmission towers extending off into the distance

 

As compared to the view across the street from it, where you can see the windmills on Amherst Island behind Matthew, off in the distance.

Matthew with windmills of Amherst Island in the distance

 

Or to this construction site at the White Pines Project in Prince Edward County (the one that Doug Ford recently cancelled). The footprint is a fraction of the size and the disruption to the environment next to nil. Farming continues all around it.

White Pines Project windmill ready for assembly

 

We all want and need electricity to sustain our lifestyles. Can you imagine if the aesthetics argument had been considered in the early years of developing our country? There most certainly would be no trans-Canada railway, no St. Lawrence seaway (imagine anyone trying to flood out dozens of towns in order to build that nowadays?), and most certainly none of these massive power generation plants and transmission towers. But the decision-makers of the day went ahead with major projects for the advancement of society as a whole, and as a result we have the infrastructure we rely on today. If we can (and did) get used to the look of these power plants and transmission towers in our back yards, then we can and will get used to windmills just the same way. And breathe a lot easier for it!

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