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“We were the poster child,” says Trillium’s chief executive John Kourtoff. Trillium was an Ontario-based company trying to give life to the Liberal government’s dream of an Ontario-based industry in wind and solar power. “Till the government came along and cut the bootstraps.”

“We’re taking a cautious and a responsible approach to offshore wind to allow for the development of research and co-ordination,” Premier Kathleen Wynne told the legislature on Wednesday. “The minister of the environment is doing some of that research, looking at the issue to ensure that we protect the health and safety of people and of the environment. We look forward to additional research coming forward, and we stand behind our cautious and responsible approach to offshore wind energy.”

The world has numerous wind farms in ocean waters, primarily in Europe, though ones in lakes are still rare.

You can put up bigger turbines far from neighbours, generating more power while reducing complaints and objections — even a big offshore wind farm can be just specks on the horizon instead of a big thrumming thing close to farms or country homes. Like oceans, the Great Lakes have open space that allows high and reliable winds. Waves and tides on lakes are less of an engineering problem than on oceans.

(Lakes have fish and birds, too, they’re more susceptible to ice, and some people are as protective of their lake views as others are of their rural landscapes. Wind farms on lakes are not worry-free.)