Massachusetts wind turbine redemption lost
The Patch|Bill Carson|April 4, 2021
Falmouth wind turbine project to plague taxpayers for decades
The Massachusetts Town of Falmouth's town-owned massive megawatt wind turbines named Wind 1 went online in 2010 and Wind 2 in 2012. The operation drew intense opposition from neighbors, who experienced turbine-related health issues due to two types of noise called infrasound and regulatory noise and were concerned about their property values.
Neighbors within 3000 feet filed up to eleven lawsuits to get the turbines shut down.
The first turbine, Wind 1 created 110 decibels of noise and was improperly installed without a special permit and shut down by the Falmouth zoning board in 2015.
The second the same as the first, Wind 2 was shut down by the courts as a nuisance in …
... more [truncated due to possible copyright]Falmouth wind turbine project to plague taxpayers for decades
The Massachusetts Town of Falmouth's town-owned massive megawatt wind turbines named Wind 1 went online in 2010 and Wind 2 in 2012. The operation drew intense opposition from neighbors, who experienced turbine-related health issues due to two types of noise called infrasound and regulatory noise and were concerned about their property values.
Neighbors within 3000 feet filed up to eleven lawsuits to get the turbines shut down.
The first turbine, Wind 1 created 110 decibels of noise and was improperly installed without a special permit and shut down by the Falmouth zoning board in 2015.
The second the same as the first, Wind 2 was shut down by the courts as a nuisance in 2017.
The turbines have remained idle since 2017 with a debt of 4 million left on the first town-owned wind turbine and a multi-million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Obama-era loan on the second.
The Falmouth Select Board in November of 2019 asked from Town Meeting Members and received 2.5 million to dismantle and disassemble both wind turbines.
Falmouth continues to spend taxpayer funds on legal advice, engineering studies in what appears to be a dog and pony show to find a way to remove the wind turbines still standing after the shutdowns in 2015 and 2017.
The legal fees by neighbors and the town have surpassed the purchase price of the turbines.
The Town of Falmouth now is in the planning stage of installing buried 800-megawatt ocean wind turbine cables through residential sections of the town. To put things in perspective a medium-size nuclear plant has an output of 800 megawatts.
Time to end the insanity?