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Recent Posts
- Second Resubmission of Proposed Industrial Wind Turbine Regulations
- Testimony to Vt. Senate Committee for Health and Welfare
- “Never reported by the Maine media: Maine’s wind potential is 89% below the national average” on Citizens’ Task Force on Wind Power – Maine
- Weekly Message: Mainers Need Affordable Electricity Now
- Studies show land-based wind turbines cause property values to plummet; Health, economic, and environmental factors are cited as major issues
- Court tells DEP to lower nighttime noise levels on Saddleback wind farm
- Maine’s Wind Power Goals: Is the Medicine Worse than the Illness?
- Maine Wind Sites Production for entire year 2012
- County disputes amount of wind farm’s Payment in Lieu of Taxes
- Falmouth may spend millions to remove turbines
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Second Resubmission of Proposed Industrial Wind Turbine Regulations
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Testimony to Vt. Senate Committee for Health and Welfare
categories: Health, Human rights, Noise
link: https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/testimony-to-vt-senate-committee-for-health-and-welfare/
link: https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/testimony-to-vt-senate-committee-for-health-and-welfare/
Luann Therrien, Sheffield: “Before the turbines were built, we felt we did not know enough about Industrial Wind to have an informed opinion. We did not oppose them being built. We did not oppose the many inconveniences during construction that comes with a project this size. We did not oppose the project, not until it was up and running and creating noise. Creating noise that – unlike what the wind developers will try and make you believe – IS distinguishable above natural sounds. I have never heard anything in nature make a repetitive whoosh whoosh whoosh sound for up to five days straight. And the only thing I have heard sound like a jet flying overhead, except for these wind turbines, is a jet flying overhead. This has now been going on for over a year.�…
“My husband has been feeling so bad that he is currently unable to work, his doctor has pulled him from his job. It’s impossible to work when you cannot concentrate due to lack of sleep, a constant pulsing in your head like a painless migraine and have the constant feeling of a head rush no matter what you are doing. Steve wakes up startled during the night in a panic state and can not go back to sleep. He has dry heaves almost every morning and has thrown up a few times. Being pulled from his job being unfit to work means he cannot collect unemployment. We have been living very frugally off of our income tax return. This money will run out, not sure what we will do then. Continue reading
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“Never reported by the Maine media: Maine’s wind potential is 89% below the national average” on Citizens’ Task Force on Wind Power – Maine
We’re taking a moment here to correct this Saudi Arabia moniker by putting Maine’s wind potential into proper perspective using data from the NREL (National Renewable Energy Lab). Hopefully one day the Maine media will pick up on facts like this. And hopefully, if and when they do, they will not employ the oft used “Anti-wind activists say that wind industry claims are false”, but rather use a more accurate headline such as “NREL data proves wind industry claims in Maine are false”.
A copy of our simple Excel analysis can be downloaded here: KW%20per%20Sq%20Mile.xls
It took all of about 45 minutes to complete this simple analysis. These figures have been there all along, had anyone spent any time doing a little bit of research. The media have been repeating wind industry propaganda for years and have not once scratched below the surface of slick wind industry propaganda to report on exactly how poor Maine’s onshore wind “resource” is.
Read the whole Article >>
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Weekly Message: Mainers Need Affordable Electricity Now
The following is the weekly message from Governor Paul R. LePage. To listen to the audio visit the Governor’s website.
Hello. This is Governor Paul LePage.
My fellow Mainers, I do not like being the bearer of disturbing news. But someone has to have the courage to tell the truth. Mainers are paying considerably more than you should for electricity.
Maine’s energy costs are 10th highest in the nation, and our electric bills are 34 percent higher than the national average. But it does not have to be this way. Affordable energy is available right here in Maine and just across our northern border.
I traveled recently to Canada to meet with officials from Hydro Quebec, which has plenty of hydro power to sell at very affordable prices. They told me that selling power to Maine is not worth it. And it’s all because Maine has a limit on how much renewable energy we can use, including hydropower. Continue reading
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Studies show land-based wind turbines cause property values to plummet; Health, economic, and environmental factors are cited as major issues
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Court tells DEP to lower nighttime noise levels on Saddleback wind farm
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Maine’s Wind Power Goals: Is the Medicine Worse than the Illness?
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Maine Wind Sites Production for entire year 2012
Folks, this is the wind industry’s miserable track record of production in Maine. It is their own data. They cannot hide from this failure, unless we allow them to do so. Look at those capacity factor numbers for the particular projects and aside from Mars Hill, we can truthfully and forcefully say this unreliable, unpredictable, non-dispatchable source of electricity produces less than 25% of its installed capacity. Make this known to everyone. Challenge wind power supporters with the truth and ask how this can possibly be justified as economic sense? — Brad Blake,CTFWP co-chair
We have final figures for the major industrial wind sites in Maine for the entire year 2012. We continue to track what is miserably poor production, with the exception of Mars Hill, the only project in Maine that comes near the output touted by the wind industry. Wondering why Spruce Mountain Wind in Woodstock does not appear? We finally have the answer: projects of 20 MW rating or less are not required to report to FERC. Aha! Spruce Mt. is 20 MW and its owner, Patriot Renewables, will not post the data. Just look at Record Hill and Spruce Mt. is likely to perform similarly. see article >>
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County disputes amount of wind farm’s Payment in Lieu of Taxes
categories: New Hampshire
link: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/02/04/county-disputes-amount-of-wind-farms-payment-in-lieu-of-taxes/
link: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/02/04/county-disputes-amount-of-wind-farms-payment-in-lieu-of-taxes/
Coös County and Brookfield Renewable Power are in disagreement regarding the amount owed as a Payment in Lieu of Taxes for the 33-turbine wind farm in the Unincorporated Places.
County administrator Jennifer Fish said a payment of $495,000 is due, and Brookfield has paid $249,175, with a deadline of February 1 to pay the remainder. “Brookfield notified the county on December 3 that the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) should be $249,175, based on the amount of megawatts that they were allowed to generate,” she said.
Ms. Fish said a one-time payment of $75,000 was made in 2008, and the first payment in 2012 was reduced by $75,000 to $420,000.
Brookfield spokesman Shannon Ames confirmed that Brookfield made the $249,175 payment. “Brookfield is continuing its attempts to resolve this issue with the county,” Brookfield said in a written statement. “We believe that the payment due under the PILOT framework is directly tied to the amount of electricity that Granite is permitted to produce. Unfortunately, the Granite project has been curtailed at various times in 2012 at the direction of ISO-New England. As a result, our ability to generate electricity, revenue and therefore payments from the wind farm were limited.”
The PILOT agreement between the county and Granite Reliable Power is dated March 12, 2008. According to the agreement, the payment to the county will be for turbines “that are actually installed and either generating electricity or capable of generating energy and permitted to generate energy as required by applicable law.” The agreement states that the county will receive $5,000 for each megawatt of installed capacity.
The agreement also states that “by no later than December 1 of each year, GRP shall provide a statement to the county setting forth the estimated amount of the PILOT to be made on the following January 1…In the event that the county disputes the amount of the PILOT…GRP and the county shall meet within 15 business days of receipt of such notice by the county to attempt in good faith to resolve such dispute.”
It goes on to state that, “in the event that the parties cannot resolve the dispute by January 1, GRP shall make the PILOT in accordance with the procedure set forth herein in the amount that GRP believes to be due,” with both sides allowed to go through all avenues to resolve the dispute. The county also has the right, at its own expense, to inspect the property and the records related to the operating capacity of the project.
Ms. Fish said that no date has been set for further discussions. The agreement will expire on the tenth anniversary of the first payment. Brookfield can cancel the PILOT agreement with 30 days by written notice to the county, meaning the wind farm will no longer be exempt from real estate taxes. If the revenues of the facility decrease “due to operational restrictions arising from changes in law, regulation or ordinance or the technical obsolescence of the facility or GRP permanently ceasing its operation of the facility, then GRP may terminate this agreement or seek renegotiation of the payments” with 60 days written notice to the county.
The facility has 33 turbines capable of generating 99 megawatts and is located in Dixville, Ervings Location, Millsfield and Odell. The Granite Reliable Power wind farm was purchased by Brookfield in 2011.
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Falmouth may spend millions to remove turbines
categories:Massachusetts
FALMOUTH— Standing in the shadow of Falmouth’s two town-owned wind turbines on Wednesday, Selectmen Vice Chairman Brent Putnam said he felt a squeeze in the air pressure and heard the loud mechanical noise akin to a jet engine.
“You can feel it,” Putnam said.
That sealed his decision about Falmouth’s two 1.65-megawatt turbines at the Wastewater Treatment Facility.
He then drove about five miles to a special selectmen’s meeting where, for the first time, he and all four other selectmen voted in support of removing the town-owned Wind 1 and Wind 2 turbines, the cause of a bitter three-year controversy in town that began when neighbors complained of adverse health effects they say were from the turbines.
Wednesday night, selectmen voted in favor of sending delegations from the board to state legislators and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center – a public agency funded with ratepayer dollars – to find out how much financial assistance and debt forgiveness the town could receive if it takes down the turbines.
The board also plans to vote Monday on three separate warrant articles for a special town meeting in April that would collectively recommend the decommissioning of the turbines, fund the dismantling process and pay the cost of operating them for the rest of the fiscal year.
“This is something that has polarized the community,” Selectmen Chairman Kevin Murphy said. “It was a situation in which Murphy’s Law played out.”
In a presentation Wednesday night, Assistant Town Manager Heather Harper – who served as the turbine project’s manager – told selectmen that taking down the turbines would cost up to $11.9 million.
It would cost up to $1.5 million in the first year when accounting for dismantling costs, annual energy costs and other considerations, Harper said. Residents would pay an average of $53 to $66 in additional taxes that year.
Tearing down Wind 1 and Wind 2 may quash arguments among residents and town officials that began when the first turbine was erected in 2010 at a cost of $4.3 million, but the cost of decommissioning them could ignite new quarrels between local and state officials.
In the years leading up to Wind 1’s ribbon cutting, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, the Clean Energy Center’s predecessor, funded a feasibility study and provided expert advice for design and siting, Catherine Williams, a spokeswoman for the center, said.
In 2007, the Technology Collaborative prepaid Falmouth for $1.9 million dollars in Renewable Energy Credits they expected the turbine to produce. The center, which was established as part of Gov. Deval Patrick’s 2008 Green Jobs Act, sold the Wind 1 turbine to Falmouth in 2009. The turbine had been in storage after Orleans’ water commissioners rejected a plan to install it and another one in a public drinking-water watershed in their town.
“I would certainly hope that they would see it within their financial ability to waive the money for the renewable energy credits,” said Selectmen Douglas Jones, one of two selectmen chosen by the board to speak to officials from the center about taking down Falmouth’s turbines.
Noting that data provided by the center guided many of the town’s decisions related to siting and installation of the turbines, Putnam also sees the agency as partially responsible for the fallout.
“A lot of the information we received about the process was from them,” Putnam said. “We had originally started with a 660-kilowatt turbine and moved up to the 1.65-megawatt turbine, you’ve got to wonder if we would have had all this trouble.”
“A lot of the information we received about the process was from them,” Putnam said. “We had originally started with a 660-kilowatt turbine and moved up to the 1.65-megawatt turbine, you’ve got to wonder if we would have had all this trouble.”
The center funded a $388,000 report by a town panel charged with finding options to mitigate turbine complaints from abutters and plans to continuing working with the town, Williams said. But it was the town, not the center, that approved Wind 1’s site.
“Our role is to help communities gather the information they need,” Williams said. “At the end of the day, the decision is with the local communities.”
“Our role is to help communities gather the information they need,” Williams said. “At the end of the day, the decision is with the local communities.”
Senate President Therese Murray, D-Plymouth, praised the idea of removing the turbines.
Murray, who selectmen named as a legislator they would likely approach seeking financial assistance, said in a statement she looks forward to hearing more about Falmouth’s decommissioning plans.
Murray, who selectmen named as a legislator they would likely approach seeking financial assistance, said in a statement she looks forward to hearing more about Falmouth’s decommissioning plans.
“This is an issue that has divided the community and I want to thank the town for their commitment to continuing to find a solution that works best for all residents,” she said.
About 10 days ago, Rep David Vieira, R-Falmouth, filed a Wind Energy Relief Act at the Statehouse that would create two funds totaling $22.5 million.
About 10 days ago, Rep David Vieira, R-Falmouth, filed a Wind Energy Relief Act at the Statehouse that would create two funds totaling $22.5 million.
The funds would go toward compensating people and businesses for detrimental effects on health or property resulting from turbines in locations chosen in cooperation with the CEC. Funds would also help towns to relocate or decommission turbines.
Selectmen’s support of dismantling the turbines on Wednesday was a step in the right direction, said Malcolm Donald, an abutter and outspoken opponent of the turbines.
“I’m guardedly happy,” Donald said. “My fear is that they’re going to drag this out as long as possible to generate as much revenue as possible.”
[rest of article available at source]
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