For two years now, a company interested in building a wind farm in Gmina Warta Bolesławiecka has been collecting documents and carrying out costly procedures. For two years, the local authorities of the municipality worked closely with the Investor. Today, the situation looks different. What is really happening is unknown. “We want to meet with the residents and find out what they are concerned about and what they think about the project—with all residents, if possible,” say the Investor’s representatives.
The Municipality Invites
The idea of building a wind farm in Warta Bolesławiecka emerged five years ago. The municipality’s councillors included the possibility of locating wind turbines in the area in the local spatial development plan. The municipality had to wait another two years for an investor. Interest was expressed by Green Bear, an international company headquartered in Warsaw that invests in renewable-energy projects. Encouraged by the conditions created by the Municipality, the Investor began developing the project. Cooperation with the municipal authorities went very well from the outset. To carry out the project in the municipality, Green Bear specifically established a subsidiary, GB Bolesławiec 202, and at that time set the planned farm’s size at a maximum of 24 turbines, each with a capacity of 2 megawatts (making it possible to install a total of 48 MW). Over the past two years, the company invested in the necessary expert assessments and assembled the documents and decisions required for the project to proceed.
A Surprising Protest
In September this year, the municipal authorities suddenly informed the Investor that protests against the construction of the wind farm had emerged. The protesters were reportedly residents of the municipality who, at a specially convened meeting on 14 September of this year, opposed the installation of wind turbines. Representatives of GB Bolesławiec were unfortunately not invited to the meeting. Instead, members of the “Stop Wiatrakom” association appeared and provided those gathered with information about the negative impact of wind turbines on health and the natural environment, presenting the planned Warta Bolesławiecka Wind Farm as highly harmful to human health. The meeting resulted in a petition signed by 149 people, calling on the municipal authorities to block the project as quickly as possible. The residents’ protest was also supported by the Municipal Council. At a session convened later that same month to discuss the wind farm’s future, the councillors refused to approve and saw no need for a meeting with residents that could have been organised by the Investor. The Municipal Council adopted a resolution obliging the wójt to prepare amendments to the local spatial development plan that would prevent the construction of wind farms in the municipality in the future.
We Want to Provide Information
After the project was called into question, the Investor repeatedly tried to organise a meeting with the municipality’s residents, asking the authorities of Warta Bolesławiecka for assistance. So far, however, without result. All the halls in the municipality where a meeting with the Investor could have been held turned out to have been reserved in advance. Despite the Investor’s requests, the content of the residents’ complaints—which, according to the authorities of Warta Bolesławiecka, were reportedly arriving in large numbers—has still not been provided to the Investor.
At the same time, false information began appearing in the media claiming that the planned farm’s turbines would be located just 150–200 metres from residential buildings. This damaged the company’s good name and undermined the reliability of the years of research conducted and studies prepared by the Investor.
As a result, a dedicated website with an email address and a free helpline (800 150 555) was launched, where detailed information about the planned project can be obtained. The Investor notified residents of this contact option through letters sent directly to all residents of the four localities nearest to the planned project: Tomaszów Bolesławiecki, Szczytnica, Lubków and Wilczy Las.
Thanks to these channels, the company receives messages from many people seeking reliable and certain information about the project in the municipality—for example, where the turbines are to be built, how far apart they will be, and what benefits the municipality and its residents will receive. This is further proof that a meeting between the Investor and the residents of Warta Bolesławiecka is necessary to provide them with complete information about the planned wind farm.
Are Wind Turbines Harmful?
One of the most serious arguments against the installation of the power plant concerned the alleged harmful effects of wind turbines on human health and the natural environment. Contrary to the rumours, however, studies by numerous research centres in Poland and around the world have shown that wind power plants pose no threat to human health or the environment. The results of these analyses can be found, among other places, online (www.oddzialywaniawiatrakow.pl). Renewable energy sources are an alternative to coal, gas and crude oil, the extraction of which has polluted the natural environment. As shown by numerous available studies conducted by occupational-medicine specialists and scientists researching the effects of wind turbines, wind turbines simply do not cause harm. The fact that the number of wind power plants worldwide continues to grow may serve as evidence. The latest report, “Wind Energy in Poland - 2009,” indicates that worldwide wind power capacity reached 157,889 megawatts (MW) in 2009, compared with 120,550 megawatts in 2008. The leaders in energy production from wind farms continue to be the USA (35,159 MW) and Germany (25,777 MW).
What Next?
It is not yet known how the entire matter will end. We can only hope that the outcome will be beneficial to both sides. Why should Gmina Warta Bolesławiecka lose a project that would enrich its residents and bring it a partner committed to the life of the community? Why should the entire situation seriously damage the image of Warta Bolesławiecka as an investor-friendly municipality, honoured with the title “Fair Play Municipality”? And finally, why should a thoroughly ecological project not be carried out in Warta Bolesławiecka, which received the “Leader of Polish Ecology” statuette?
Let us hope, however, that the above-mentioned worst-case scenario for the municipality does not come true, and that the ecological wind turbines will finally turn above Warta Bolesławiecka, bringing its residents not only ecological, clean and environmentally safe energy, but also tangible material benefits, becoming a symbol of the dynamically developing Municipality.
(commissioned information)