wind-power company trillium gets ok to sue ontario for $2.25b
trillium power wind corp. has won an appeal that will allow it to proceed with a $2.25-billion lawsuit against the government of ontario for imposing what the company alleges was a politically motivated moratorium on offshore wind farm development during the 2011 election.
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a file photo of a wind turbine off the coast of japan. trillium energy was well advanced in its plans for a 138-turbine wind farm in the middle of lake ontario, 28 kilometres from prince edward county, when mcguinty’s liberal government announced that all offshore wind projects were being ‘suspended’ to allow for further scientific research. (koji sasahara , ap)
in an interview thursday, john kourtoff, trillium’s president and ceo, said litigation had always been his company’s last resort and called on the provincial government to work with trillium to move its project forward.he pointed out that earlier this year, the ministry of natural resources recommended that the government proceed with a commercial-scale offshore wind pilot project so that best practices could be determined.“we are that commercial-scale project,” kourtoff said. “we’re ready to go. on a scale of one to 100, we’re at 98, and everyone else is within zero to five in the great lakes.“because our site is go good and we had everything ready to go, we could reconstitute it if there’s good will from the government side.”because of efficiency gains, kourtoff said trillium’s project could now produce about 500 megawatts of power with fewer turbines — between 90 and 100 — than originally planned.“we would put out as much guaranteed base load power in the middle of the lake as you would get from one nuclear reactor,” he said. “it’s a unique site and the wind is beyond anything imaginable on shore.”kourtoff said offshore wind is a unique resource that ontario hasn’t yet harnessed.“it would be the same as having niagara falls and not harnessing it for hydro power. if we can move quickly to a resolution, we can still get ontario back into the forefront of this in north america.”[pn_facebook_like /]
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