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You might have seen wind turbines springing up all over the Northwest in the past decade. This year, the region's wind industry has faced a different story.
Not a single new wind farms is under construction in the Northwest.
A rift is widening in Coalition ranks over renewable energy targets, with several Liberal MPs planning to publicly defy the party line by attending a Tea Party-style anti-wind farm rally at Parliament House in Canberra.
Kingston resident claims independent testing of O'Donnell turbines proves non-compliance
May 25, 2013 by Kathryn Gallerani in Wicked Local Kingston
May 25, 2013 by Kathryn Gallerani in Wicked Local Kingston
"The evidence that the O'Donnell turbines are operating outside the boundaries of the DEP noise regulation is incontrovertible, and the effects are devastating," he writes. "Residents are being forced to abandon their homes during periods of high wind speeds. Others, with no alternative, simply hunker down and try to survive day-to-day with a debilitating lack of sleep."
IEA warns Germany on soaring green dream costs
May 25, 2013 by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in The Telegraph
May 25, 2013 by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in The Telegraph
Germany's push for wind and solar and its retreat from nuclear power is driving electricity costs to untenable levels and destroying support for the green agenda, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has warned.
Kingston Independence operators refuse to cooperate, challenge methodology
May 25, 2013 by Kathryn Gallerani in Wicked Local Kingston
May 25, 2013 by Kathryn Gallerani in Wicked Local Kingston
In an abrupt about face late last week, the Independence turbine owners at Kingston Wind Independence are refusing to participate a long-awaited acoustic monitoring study.
The Board of Selectmen and Board of Health are sending a letter to the state Department of Environmental Protection this week asking that officials step in and provide assistance to the town.
Realtor Susan Whitehead said she has been trying to sell a property on Weeden Road for two years. That property was put on the market for reasons unrelated to the turbines, but Whitehead said buyers ask about the machines, which are visible across Little Bay, "100 percent of the time."
"They ask about the noise, they ask about the flicker, and then they don't put in an offer," she said.
Germany must shield its consumers from paying too much of the cost of its ambitious switch from nuclear power and fossil fuels towards renewable energy, the International Energy Agency said on Friday.
The IEA also said that Germany, with Europe's biggest economy, should make greater use of natural gas to smoothe the transition.
Neighbors react to town's vote to not dismantle wind turbines
May 24, 2013 by Brent Runyon in The Enterprise
May 24, 2013 by Brent Runyon in The Enterprise
The Falmouth wind turbine problem will also be a black mark on the wind industry both locally and internationally in the years ahead, he said. He compared the turbines to the odor that came from the wastewater treatment plant, which took 15 years of neighbors' complaints for the town to resolve the problem.
In full-page newspaper ads Thursday, the Associated Industries of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership say the state already has expensive energy, and the project's above-market power costs will make it tougher to attract business.
Also filed under [
General|
Massachusetts]
What Now? All options back on table for board of selectmen
May 24, 2013 by Christopher Kazarian in Falmouth Enterprise
May 24, 2013 by Christopher Kazarian in Falmouth Enterprise
Now that voters refused to approve a debt exclusion to take down the town's turbines, selectmen must go back to the drawing board for a solution. "You know, I think this was our best chance at resolving this issue. That is why the board decided on this course of action," Selectman Brent V.W. Putnam said yesterday.
Also filed under [
General|
Massachusetts]
The powerful Danish wind industry in the last six years received over 80 billion, with the bulk of the money going to project owners and investors. At the same time, Danish electricity consumers paid $4.6 billion in so-called PSO charges last year for wind power. That figure has skyrocketed by 270 percent over the past five years.
Tuesday night's Board of Health meeting erupted in angry shouts.
This after the state Department of Environmental Protection showed the wind turbines often exceed legal noise limits.
State finds Fairhaven turbines in violation of noise regulations
May 22, 2013 by Ariel Wittenberg in South Coast Today
May 22, 2013 by Ariel Wittenberg in South Coast Today
DEP Deputy Commissioner Martin Suuberg told the Board of Health that noise from the turbines exceeded state regulations in five of the 24 periods during which the DEP conducted testing. ...many in the audience began shouting for Board of Health Chairman Peter DeTerra to make a motion to shut down the wind turbines until Fairhaven Wind presented the board with a mitigation plan.
"That means that German companies are bound to invest a lot more in the US," Grillo commented. Energy-intensive firms like Wacker and BASF speak of clear competitive advantages in the US, with the first already building a production facility in Tennessee.
Forty-one percent of registered voters - 9,873 out of 24,158 - turned out to cast ballots on 18 questions, including Question 2, which would have authorized the decommissioning, dismantling and removal of the turbines. ...The selectmen, who support removing the turbines, will now have to find another way to deal with the ongoing dispute.
Also filed under [
Impact on People|
Massachusetts]
Fairhaven eyes partial turbine shutdowns; Wind direction, night hours considered after troubling state report
May 22, 2013 by Ariel Wittenberg in South Coast Today
May 22, 2013 by Ariel Wittenberg in South Coast Today
Board of Selectmen Chairman Charlie Murphy had called for a meeting in April between the Boards of Health and Selectmen to look into turning the turbines off between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. On Wednesday, he said the study's findings have only strengthened his resolve to "give our residents a good night's sleep."
Also filed under [
Impact on People|
Massachusetts]
The overall direction of the market, however, has been down. You can get a sense of the amount of money that has been lost by investors from the WilderHill Clean Energy Index, which tracks the performance of publicly traded green energy stocks ranging from solar and wind to rare earth minerals and water companies. The market value of the companies in the index has fallen from a peak level of $231 billion in late December 2007 to about $108 billion today, a decline of 53 percent.
Also filed under [
Energy Policy|
USA]
Wind power's grip on Augusta weakening
May 21, 2013 by Naomi Schalit and John Christie in The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting
May 21, 2013 by Naomi Schalit and John Christie in The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting
Armed with the signatures of the majority of residents in their townships and plantations, they went to ask lawmakers to pass a bill to give them back the right to influence how the land in their communities was used.
That right, they said, had been taken away.
Also filed under [
Energy Policy|
Maine]
Wethington files for new Fairhaven Board of Health election, hearing Wednesday
May 21, 2013 by Matt Camara in South Coast Today
May 21, 2013 by Matt Camara in South Coast Today
John Wethington has asked a Superior Court judge to throw out April's much-disputed election results and compel a new Board of Health race. [Note: The outcome of the election would impact how the community addressed noise from the Fairhaven wind turbines.]
Also filed under [
General|
Massachusetts]
There has also been a resurgence of cheap coal, considered a dirtier energy source, abetted by a market failure in the European carbon emission trade.
An oversupply in the right-to-pollute certificates has seen their price fall from an envisioned 15-18 euros per tonne of CO2 to just two to three euros -- making coal plants an economically attractive option once more.
Also filed under [
Energy Policy|
Germany]