Quebec gives go-ahead to $300M wind farm

MONTREAL, July 13 (UPI) -- The provincial government of Quebec has approved building a $300 million, 44-windmill wind farm south of Montreal on agricultural land.

The province's environmental agency issued a 112-page report after three public hearings. One citizen expressed concern over the noise the turbines would make and another opposed using agricultural land, The (Montreal) Gazette said.

Regardless, the agency gave the Canadian Kruger Energy's Kemont subsidiary approval to begin construction of the towers whose blades will reach 405 feet.

Once the project becomes operational in December 2012, it's expected to generated 101 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 10,000 homes that are heated by electricity, the report said. The electricity will be fed into the Hydro Quebec utility's power grid.

The environmental approval mandated monitoring equipment would have to run continuously to address the concern of noise from the turbines. It also said no tower can be built closer than 750 yards from a residence, and none can be located closer than 1.3 miles from a designated urbanized zone.