http://www.windaction.org/ facts, analysis, exposure of wind energy's real impacts en-us Windaction hourly 1 http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.windaction.org/articles/19492 Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:11:55 GMT This photo of the Newburyport wind turbine (292-feet tall) was taken from at the rear property line of a nearby residence. The residents in the area have expressed their concerns to the city about noise, flicker, ice throws and other safety issues. http://www.windaction.org/articles/19492 http://www.windaction.org/articles/19491 Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:03:04 GMT This 292-foot wind turbine recently erected in Newburyport, MA is located just 319-feet from the public pedestrian rail trail, 350-feet from heavily-traveled U.S. Route 1 (in the foreground), and 800-feet from the nearest residence. See: http://www.windaction.org/faqs/18868 for information on potential safety risks. http://www.windaction.org/articles/19491 http://www.windaction.org/articles/2288 Fri, 31 Mar 2006 00:23:15 GMT PRINCETON — On February 21, when Princeton Light Department Manager Jonathan Fitch drove over Westminster Road to check on the windmills, he got an unpleasant surprise. Instead of seven, he counted only six. One of the 22-year old windmills at the PMLD’s wind farm had fallen over, landing on the storage garage, demolishing the building. “I check on the site weekly, and had made a point to check the site on the previous Friday because of the high winds,” said Fitch. “All seven turbines and towers were up and okay then.” After a long weekend of windy weather and the Monday holiday, Fitch decided to recheck the site. “I drove by Westminster Road and counted only six towers, so I walked up to the site to look and that’s when I discovered one of the towers had fallen over and landed on our storage garage,” he said. The bottom section of the tower was a pile of twisted metal, mixed with large pieces of splintered wood that had been the garage. The broken turbine and smashed blades lay in a pile nearby. According to Fitch, the garage was used to store old parts and pieces for the old windmill and was going to be taken down as part of the wind farm upgrade. Fitch called in his crew and got a backhoe to the site along with a 30-yard Dumpster to start getting the area cleaned. “I came back to the office and contacted the state Department of Conservation and Recreation to let them know,” he said. The existing windmills haven’t been on line producing energy since October 2003, said Fitch. “We knew we weren’t going to maintain them so we turned them off hoping to take them down when the project was approved to construct two new towers,” he added. The department received approval in 2003 to take down the windmills, but the work wasn’t done because the project has been delayed, he said. Fitch called a structural engineer for a forensic analysis of why the tower failed and is awaiting his report. “I also wanted an engineer to check the other towers to see if they were at risk for failure until they are taken down,” said Fitch. “It appears the back leg of the tower bent first, then the tower went down. It could have been over a period of time or gone down quickly,” he said. Top photo The lower half of the 100-foot tower amid the wreckage of the storage garage. Bottom photo Twisted pieces of the roof of the storage garage and parts of the blades lay in a pile. Phyllis Booth photo The Board of Light Commissioners inspected the site on Tuesday and Wednesday and told Fitch to take down five of the remaining towers immediately, he said. “We knew they were at the end of their use in 2001,” said Fitch. “We’ll leave one windmill up, that has the 50-kilowatt turbine, which Composite Engineering will use to test new blades for that size turbine. But the board doesn’t want to wait any longer before taking the other five down.” Composite Engineering has put up $10,000 toward the removal of the other turbines. The five towers will come down piece by piece and Composite Engineering will refurbish them. One of the towers will go to the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan where it will become part of the museum’s collection. The windmills were installed in 1984 and consisted of eight, 100-foot, steel lattice towers with 40kW wind turbines. At the time, residents voted in favor of purchasing the 16-acre site and developing the wind farm as an alternative to PMLD purchasing power from the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant. The original plan recommended approximately 500kW of capacity on 164-foot towers. PMLD didn’t install the recommended size and quantity of units due to the high cost, installing instead 320kW of capacity on smaller towers. At the time the windmills were projected to produce about 10 percent of the town’s energy requirements. The wind source at the lower height and the 50foot mature tree canopy surrounding the site were also factors in contributing to the lower than expected amounts of renewable energy. For a brief time the windmills produced about 3 percent of the town’s energy needs, but that fell to about 1 percent as the years went by. In December 1999, PMLD started the process of researching options for the wind site, considered a number of options, and finally decided to upgrade the wind farm by installing two 230-foot towers with 1.6megawatt turbines. In a February 2003 ballot vote, residents approved PMLD’s proposal to replace the eight windmills with the higher towers. The new windmills are expected to generate at least 40 percent of the town’s energy needs. The project has been the subject of extensive state and local permitting processes, and court challenges. “We didn’t want to take the old windmills down until we were ready to work on the entire site because it’s much more efficient to do all the work at once,” Fitch said. “Keeping the old turbines establishes the fact we have an existing wind site and it was important to have them there as we went through the permitting process.” Removing the old wind towers requires a crane and is dependent on the weather for good climbing conditions. “We can’t do the work if there are winds,” said Fitch. “We’ll coordinate the work over the next few weeks — a combination of Composite Engineering manpower, my linemen and the crane operator.” A crane will lower the turbines until they are about 25 feet from the ground where the PMLD crew using the bucket truck will remove the blades. Once the turbine and blades are on the ground, the lattice tower will be unbolted and lowered to the ground in one piece by the crane, said Fitch. “We’ll do all five that way to maximize the use of the crane. That’s the most expensive piece of equipment at about $1,500 a day,” he said. Fitch expects it will take three or four days to get the towers on the ground. Then they will be disassembled and taken back to the PMLD where they will be taken away by Composite. “It will be a little more costly to take the towers down now, separate from the project. But there isn’t any monetary loss to the Princeton ratepayer other than the salvage value of the turbine that was destroyed when the tower fell. We were going to give it to Composite anyway,” said Fitch. “I suspect the tower fell as a result of the high winds, some with gusts over 50 miles per hour, and the age of the towers,” he said. “But I’ll know more after I get the report from the forensic engineer.” In the past, two wind test towers have fallen at the site, one during an ice storm in 2002, and another in March 2003 as a result of a fault in the bedrock where the tower was anchored. In 2004, a generator mounted on one of the eight windmills failed and the blades broke off. ]]> The top half of one of the 100-foot windmills, with its broken turbine and missing blades, lies on the ground at the PMLD wind site. PRINCETON — On February 21, when Princeton Light Department Manager Jonathan Fitch drove over Westminster Road to check on the windmills, he got an unpleasant surprise. Instead of seven, he counted only six. One of the 22-year old windmills at the PMLD’s wind farm had fallen over, landing on the storage garage, demolishing the building. “I check on the site weekly, and had made a point to check the site on the previous Friday because of the high winds,” said Fitch. “All seven turbines and towers were up and okay then.” After a long weekend of windy weather and the Monday holiday, Fitch decided to recheck the site. “I drove by Westminster Road and counted only six towers, so I walked up to the site to look and that’s when I discovered one of the towers had fallen over and landed on our storage garage,” he said. The bottom section of the tower was a pile of twisted metal, mixed with large pieces of splintered wood that had been the garage. The broken turbine and smashed blades lay in a pile nearby. According to Fitch, the garage was used to store old parts and pieces for the old windmill and was going to be taken down as part of the wind farm upgrade. Fitch called in his crew and got a backhoe to the site along with a 30-yard Dumpster to start getting the area cleaned. “I came back to the office and contacted the state Department of Conservation and Recreation to let them know,” he said. The existing windmills haven’t been on line producing energy since October 2003, said Fitch. “We knew we weren’t going to maintain them so we turned them off hoping to take them down when the project was approved to construct two new towers,” he added. The department received approval in 2003 to take down the windmills, but the work wasn’t done because the project has been delayed, he said. Fitch called a structural engineer for a forensic analysis of why the tower failed and is awaiting his report. “I also wanted an engineer to check the other towers to see if they were at risk for failure until they are taken down,” said Fitch. “It appears the back leg of the tower bent first, then the tower went down. It could have been over a period of time or gone down quickly,” he said. Top photo The lower half of the 100-foot tower amid the wreckage of the storage garage. Bottom photo Twisted pieces of the roof of the storage garage and parts of the blades lay in a pile. Phyllis Booth photo The Board of Light Commissioners inspected the site on Tuesday and Wednesday and told Fitch to take down five of the remaining towers immediately, he said. “We knew they were at the end of their use in 2001,” said Fitch. “We’ll leave one windmill up, that has the 50-kilowatt turbine, which Composite Engineering will use to test new blades for that size turbine. But the board doesn’t want to wait any longer before taking the other five down.” Composite Engineering has put up $10,000 toward the removal of the other turbines. The five towers will come down piece by piece and Composite Engineering will refurbish them. One of the towers will go to the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan where it will become part of the museum’s collection. The windmills were installed in 1984 and consisted of eight, 100-foot, steel lattice towers with 40kW wind turbines. At the time, residents voted in favor of purchasing the 16-acre site and developing the wind farm as an alternative to PMLD purchasing power from the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant. The original plan recommended approximately 500kW of capacity on 164-foot towers. PMLD didn’t install the recommended size and quantity of units due to the high cost, installing instead 320kW of capacity on smaller towers. At the time the windmills were projected to produce about 10 percent of the town’s energy requirements. The wind source at the lower height and the 50foot mature tree canopy surrounding the site were also factors in contributing to the lower than expected amounts of renewable energy. For a brief time the windmills produced about 3 percent of the town’s energy needs, but that fell to about 1 percent as the years went by. In December 1999, PMLD started the process of researching options for the wind site, considered a number of options, and finally decided to upgrade the wind farm by installing two 230-foot towers with 1.6megawatt turbines. In a February 2003 ballot vote, residents approved PMLD’s proposal to replace the eight windmills with the higher towers. The new windmills are expected to generate at least 40 percent of the town’s energy needs. The project has been the subject of extensive state and local permitting processes, and court challenges. “We didn’t want to take the old windmills down until we were ready to work on the entire site because it’s much more efficient to do all the work at once,” Fitch said. “Keeping the old turbines establishes the fact we have an existing wind site and it was important to have them there as we went through the permitting process.” Removing the old wind towers requires a crane and is dependent on the weather for good climbing conditions. “We can’t do the work if there are winds,” said Fitch. “We’ll coordinate the work over the next few weeks — a combination of Composite Engineering manpower, my linemen and the crane operator.” A crane will lower the turbines until they are about 25 feet from the ground where the PMLD crew using the bucket truck will remove the blades. Once the turbine and blades are on the ground, the lattice tower will be unbolted and lowered to the ground in one piece by the crane, said Fitch. “We’ll do all five that way to maximize the use of the crane. That’s the most expensive piece of equipment at about $1,500 a day,” he said. Fitch expects it will take three or four days to get the towers on the ground. Then they will be disassembled and taken back to the PMLD where they will be taken away by Composite. “It will be a little more costly to take the towers down now, separate from the project. But there isn’t any monetary loss to the Princeton ratepayer other than the salvage value of the turbine that was destroyed when the tower fell. We were going to give it to Composite anyway,” said Fitch. “I suspect the tower fell as a result of the high winds, some with gusts over 50 miles per hour, and the age of the towers,” he said. “But I’ll know more after I get the report from the forensic engineer.” In the past, two wind test towers have fallen at the site, one during an ice storm in 2002, and another in March 2003 as a result of a fault in the bedrock where the tower was anchored. In 2004, a generator mounted on one of the eight windmills failed and the blades broke off. http://www.windaction.org/articles/2288 http://www.windaction.org/articles/23730 Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:18:03 GMT An automated review of 17 proposed wind turbines at the Massachusetts Military Reservation flagged five more as a presumed hazard to aviation, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration said yesterday. But when all is said and done, the reversal on those five turbines, which just one week earlier were considered OK, may be a mere blip on the radar screen, FAA spokesman Jim Peters said. http://www.windaction.org/articles/23730 http://www.windaction.org/articles/23657 Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:33:58 GMT The Federal Aviation Administration says five wind turbines can't be built at the Massachusetts Military Reservation on Cape Cod, six days after approving them. The FAA now says the 400-foot high turbines pose a hazard to air navigation. http://www.windaction.org/articles/23657 http://www.windaction.org/articles/20548 Thu, 26 Mar 2009 18:23:43 GMT The town's chances of becoming greener have been curtailed by its proximity to Logan International Airport, which is 0.2 to 2 miles from any given point in the community. The two locations identified for a turbine are 0.75 and 1.25 miles from the airport, according to the DPW. After submitting a permit application early last year, town officials received a verbal report in November from the Federal Aviation Administration that indicated that a 250-foot structure in the vicinity of the DPW site would create, "a potential concern with sound landing and takeoff procedures and may be within or uncomfortably close to critical surface area zones," Hickey stated in a letter to Winthrop's town manager last year. http://www.windaction.org/articles/20548 http://www.windaction.org/articles/20085 Fri, 20 Feb 2009 13:26:25 GMT The Federal Aviation Administration is saying "not yet" on the proposed wind farm project for Nantucket Sound, issuing a "Notice of Presumed Hazard" Feb 13. "Initial findings of this study indicate that the structure as described exceeds obstruction standards and/or would have an adverse physical or electromagnetic interference effect upon navigable airspace or air navigation facilities," the FAA notice issued Feb. 13 reads. "Pending resolution of the issues described below, the structure is presumed to be a hazard to air navigation." http://www.windaction.org/articles/20085 http://www.windaction.org/articles/20040 Tue, 17 Feb 2009 14:38:42 GMT The FAA's "Notice of Presumed Hazard" warns that the 130 proposed turbines could have an "adverse physical or electromagnetic interference effect upon navigable airspace or air navigation facilities." The report warns the rotating blades of the turbines could cause unwanted "clutter" in radar systems. To correct the problem, the FAA study recommends an upgrade of the radar system located at the Massachusetts Military Reservation, where regional air traffic control is conducted. http://www.windaction.org/articles/20040 http://www.windaction.org/articles/19990 Fri, 13 Feb 2009 21:15:32 GMT HYANNIS, Mass. -- After five years of strong objections by the Barnstable, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket airports and others on the safety of the 400,000 flights per year over Nantucket Sound, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today formally issued a Notice of Presumed Hazard for the Cape Wind project. Cape Wind is proposing a 44 story, 25 square mile wind project centered under the flight paths between Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket. The project would affect FAA radar sites in North Truro, Nantucket, and Otis Air Force Base that provide detection of aircraft for Air Traffic Control (ATC). http://www.windaction.org/articles/19990 http://www.windaction.org/articles/19979 Fri, 13 Feb 2009 03:35:30 GMT Federal aviation officials issued a report today finding that the Cape Wind project, which calls for erecting 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound, would pose a "presumed hazard" for airplanes because of interference with air traffic control radar systems. "Initial findings of this study indicate that the structure as described exceeds obstruction standards and/or would have an adverse physical or electromagnetic interference effect," the Federal Aviation Administration said in the report. http://www.windaction.org/articles/19979 http://www.windaction.org/articles/19534 Fri, 16 Jan 2009 23:18:27 GMT Last April the Federal Aviation Administration approved a proposal submitted by Notus Clean Energy LLC to erect a wind turbine in Falmouth Technology Park, determining that the structure would not be a hazard to air navigation. On Christmas Eve, the FAA sent an e-mail to Daniel H. Webb, owner of Notus Clean Energy, notifying him that the approval had been revoked. http://www.windaction.org/articles/19534 http://www.windaction.org/articles/19301 Thu, 25 Dec 2008 13:05:00 GMT The Coast Guard report, which is not yet released, reportedly considers the 130-turbine project in Nantucket Sound "doable" but some in the audience found the simulated radar scenarios more than a tad confusing as they tried to pick out the boats from the false echoes and turbine blades. ...There are short periods of time when the vessels are subsumed into the turbines," Rugger concluded. "Inside the wind farm there are a lot of secondary reflections, and often times it's hard to pick out the vessels from that." http://www.windaction.org/articles/19301 http://www.windaction.org/articles/19270 Mon, 22 Dec 2008 05:40:32 GMT In a letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthome dated Thursday, the congressman [Rahall D-WV] requests that the federal Minerals Management Service delay issuing its final environmental impact statement "until the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) has provided the public 60 days to review and comment on a third-party review of the radar study submitted by the Cape Wind project developers." http://www.windaction.org/articles/19270 http://www.windaction.org/articles/19214 Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:57:29 GMT The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently classified proposed wind turbine projects at West Tisbury School and the MV Arena (MVA) as presumed hazards to air navigation, given their location in the Martha's Vineyard Airport's flight paths. The FAA's decisions, which included recommendations for reducing the height of the two wind turbines, may literally take the wind out of the ice arena's project. http://www.windaction.org/articles/19214 http://www.windaction.org/articles/18593 Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:20:51 GMT One of the largest businesses in town is working toward going green. Decas Cranberry Company in South Carver has proposed installing a test tower to measure the wind on the property in an effort to determine whether a wind turbine would be a viable future energy source for the company. http://www.windaction.org/articles/18593 http://www.windaction.org/articles/12567 Wed, 07 Nov 2007 23:27:24 GMT ...a 350-foot wind turbine may be too much of a good thing for Mountain Hill Road residents. ...The planning board made its decision Monday night, despite stiff opposition from neighborhood residents who packed town hall to protest the plan. ‘‘It's not that we're against wind energy, but the drop zone for one of the turbines would be within 85 to 200 feet of our neighbors,'' Mountain Hill Road resident William Gould said. ‘‘These things are monstrous, and they are right on top of our neighborhood. The impact would be devastating. ‘‘The bylaw says five acres and wind is enough for a turbine. If this is approved, what neighborhood is next?'' http://www.windaction.org/articles/12567 http://www.windaction.org/articles/11587 Thu, 30 Aug 2007 22:20:20 GMT Massachusetts were shelved temporarily yesterday after officials were informed a wind turbine in Oregon collapsed and took a life four days earlier. Conveying the news, Michael Faherty, the attorney for Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, had to raise his voice over the noise of a helicopter hovering above Blackburn Industrial Park. The helicopter was brought in by Varian to show the council and community how high and visible the twin turbines would be. ... The towers would rise 328 feet from their bases with blade heights adding another 168 feet, for a total of 496 feet - roughly the height of a 30-story building. http://www.windaction.org/articles/11587 http://www.windaction.org/articles/10531 Wed, 04 Jul 2007 11:49:36 GMT OTIS AIR BASE - Plans to build a wind turbine at the base are on hold until officials figure out whether a turbine would interfere with the Air Force's PAVE PAWS radar station in Sagamore. http://www.windaction.org/articles/10531 http://www.windaction.org/articles/10226 Mon, 18 Jun 2007 10:23:19 GMT A recently released Department of Defense report calls for a 25-kilometer "offset zone" between possible wind farms and the PAVE PAWS radar installation in Sagamore. However, Cape Wind Associates' plan for a wind farm in Nantucket Sound would fall slightly more than two kilometers outside such a zone. According to the report, that means the proposed wind farm would not affect operations at the strategically vital defense radar site. http://www.windaction.org/articles/10226 http://www.windaction.org/articles/10200 Sat, 16 Jun 2007 10:55:23 GMT For several years US Congressman William Delahunt has been urging the United States Department of Defense to conduct a detailed study on whether the Cape Wind project 2 would interfere with the massive radar facility on the Upper Cape called Pave Paws 1. Two week's ago Congressman Delahunt changed his mind about whether the Massachusetts Military Reservation where the Pave Paws is located was a good place for a wind farm. http://www.windaction.org/articles/10200