While the official business was a proposal to increase the maximum height of already approved wind-power turbines, the hearing turned into a wider and contentious critique of wind power's safety in rural communities. No votes were taken. The question of whether a project in the making since 2004 can increase its height by 30 feet will be decided at a future special Town Meeting. 

General Massachusetts

An Acton couple are facing 30 years in prison after filing for more than $50 million in grants from the 2009 federal stimulus bill meant to spur the economy out of the Great Recession, in order to reimburse themselves for wind farm and biofuel projects the U.S. Department of Justice claims never happened.

General Massachusetts

Based on a vote taken Wednesday by the board of trustees of the Massachusetts Clean Water Trust, the town must pay back $2.9 million of the $4.9 million original loan. No interest will be charged and the town has until July 2029 to pay it off.

General Massachusetts

Project opponent Audra Parker of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound said BOEM's supplemental environmental impact assessment was conducted with too narrow of a scope and did not take into consideration that offshore wind technology has advanced since Cape Wind was first given federal approval in 2010, Cape Wind's failure to extend state permits, alternative clean energy projects that are now possible, and the termination of power purchase agreements.

General Massachusetts

Canadian utility Emera has proposed exporting power from 1.2GW of future onshore wind farms in eastern Canada via a subsea cable to Massachusetts, to help the New England state meet its mandated renewables target.

General New Brunswick Nova Scotia Massachusetts

Selectmen addressed the financial circumstances while announcing the decision not to appeal, saying “we know there would be substantial costs associated with taking down the turbines in addition to the lost electricity generated by both Wind 1 and Wind 2 as well as the looming debt associated with not running the turbines.” “These are real numbers and those liabilities have real impact on our community services and resources,” the statement read.

General Massachusetts

The shutdown comes nearly a year after the company took steps to replace an oil pump motor within the turbine's nacelle and brought it back up to full capacity last July 27. 

General Massachusetts

“It’s just such a tremendous relief to me and it’s still taken these past couple of days to sink in,” said Barry A. Funfar, a plaintiff in the case that ultimately led the board of selectmen to drop legal proceedings. Mr. Funfar is one of several neighbors who argued that the presence of the turbines negatively affected their health. 

General Massachusetts

The costs of the Wind Turbine Curse keep adding up.

General Massachusetts

SAVOY — Bolstered by a new financial partner, a Berkshires wind turbine project proposed nearly 15 years ago may at last swing into life.

General Massachusetts

One opponent of wind energy was armed with a three-page testimonial about his plight of living near a wind turbine. ...He began, “Do you know what it’s like to live for 30 years in peace and quiet, to come home and see 350-foot blades from wind turbines in your neighborhood? Do you know what it’s like to feel uncomfortable in your own yard, having to listen to an industrial noise that never seems to end?”

General Massachusetts

If you’ve taken off from Logan Airport, you’ve probably seen the unusual white wind turbine on Deer Island — the one that looks a bit like a lollipop and stands apart from the two more traditional turbines that produce electricity for the water treatment plant there.

General Massachusetts

FALL RIVER — Bad blade pitch bearings could ruin your day.

General Massachusetts

Some neighbors have embraced them; others have complained and have been successful in curbing their hours of operation. Some turbines have had technical problems, and many have been proposed but never built in the face of local opposition.

General Massachusetts

First time it has been brought to the ground since it went up in 2009 NEWBURYPORT — For the first time since it went online eight years ago, the 292-foot-high wind turbine on Parker Street is being partly dismantled, but only temporarily.

General Massachusetts

For a couple of years now, Beacon Hill insiders have viewed the once-vaunted Cape Wind Energy Project as dead, a victim of local opposition, persistent lawsuits, financing challenges, and power purchase and permitting setbacks.

General USA Massachusetts

The RTO’s filing said five renewable energy projects in northern Maine, a landfill gas facility, a wind farm and three hydropower projects, totaling more than 22 MW, were disqualified because of insufficient transmission capacity. The Orrington interface in eastern Maine, critical to unlocking wind energy potential from the northeastern areas of the state, is the subject of a study now underway by ISO-NE planners. (See ISO-NE Planning Advisory Committee Briefs.)

General Maine Massachusetts

The projects have a nameplate capacity of 461.2 megawatts, but they will produce less power than that because the facilities typically operate at less than 35 percent of capacity. Approximately 306.4 megawatts come from solar projects and 154.8 megawatts from wind.

General Connecticut Maine Massachusetts New Hampshire Rhode Island

Ambitious plans to build wind farms in northern and western Maine representing billions of dollars of investment were dealt a blow on Tuesday, after a coalition of utilities and state agencies in southern New England failed to select any Maine-based wind or transmission projects to meet the region’s clean-energy goals.

General Connecticut Maine Massachusetts New Hampshire Rhode Island

“Town officials agreed to…offering mediation to the plaintiffs.” It might be more accurate to say, “Town officials agreed to…accepting the (ongoing since 2012) mediation offer by neighbors.”

General Massachusetts