Farmer protests energy facility planned in East Gwillimbury Greenbelt

East Gwillimbury farmer Emil Yeghiaian believes in protecting the Greenbelt.

A Greenbelt farmer himself, he often sells his crops at the Newmarket Farmers’ Market. He said he sees the importance of protecting the agricultural land concentrated in the Greenbelt from development.

So when he saw a power storage facility proposed in his community using agricultural Greenbelt land, Yeghian was moved to take action.

“It’s the Greenbelt, that’s it. To me, that is the end of the discussion,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with power stations. I understand we have to build them for the future … (But) only 10 per cent of Ontario land can grow crops, 90 per cent can’t. Why are we building it on the 10 per cent that’s feeding our citizens?”

Northland Power is proposing a battery storage facility called Woodbine Energy Storage in East Gwillimbury. Located on farmland north of Newmarket between Highway 404 and Woodbine Avenue, the proposal includes battery storage enclosures, electrical inverters and transformers. The company is making a bid as the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) seeks proposals to help expand the power system, with the battery storage facility meant to help reliability by storing energy at lower usage times and then releasing it during peak times. 

The company submitted the bid in December, getting the necessary support from East Gwillimbury council to at least make it to that stage in the process. The IESO will start to award contracts this year, and if this project does earn a contract, more formal municipal planning efforts would go ahead.