The two black small wind turbines that were enacted last summer in the new community of Riviera are on the verge of receiving the OK from town planning to remain standing tall for another year.
Although the developer, Jayman, was not required to receive town approval to enact the 10-metre-high, one-kW small wind turbines, the town did ask Jayman to voluntarily take part in their development application process after the turbines were put up.
“For turbines under 10-kW, (the developer) doesn’t need to get provincial approval (through the Alberta Utilities Commission, AUC), they can go through our local energy provider, which is Fortis,” explained Kathy Dietrich, senior manager with town planning and engineering.
Dietrich said the development permit was approved in February and the town is currently awaiting the applicant to meet some conditions, including details on how the turbines will be monitored; the town anticipates the conditions will be met in the coming weeks.
The development permit will be issued as a temporary (one-year) permit.
Dietrich said that the town asked the developer to take part in the development application process as part of the town’s 2014 Renewable Energy Framework (REF) process, as well as in response to the controversy surrounding the proposed 5kW Evance 9000 small wind turbine that the Cochrane High School (CHS) Sustainability Committee was proposing to enact on school property in 2012.
That school project is currently on hold until the REF is complete and municipal guidelines on renewable energy sources are formed (toward the end of 2014).
“We currently don’t have regulations or guidelines governing small wind turbines — and that is part of the REF,” said Dietrich, adding that with respect to the turbines is Riviera:
“We understood right from the beginning that they were of a different scale (than the proposed CHS turbine) and that they were being put into a new community. We haven’t received any complaints yet.”
