A day after the Falmouth Board of Selectmen voted in a closed-door session on Monday to shut down Wind 1, one of the town's two wind turbines, while it fights a cease-and-desist order against the device's operation, the board on Tuesday voted to place three warrant articles before the planned Nov. 10 special town meeting. One of the articles would exempt the turbine from zoning requirements retroactively, paving the way for it to be turned back on.

General Massachusetts

Under its court-ordered current half-time operating schedule, the two municipal wind turbines are not generating enough green energy to pay for themselves. And if they are ordered to be shut down, it would mean be a huge financial loss to the town, said Douglas H. Jones, chairman of the board of selectmen. “At this point, I have no idea how we would cover the financial loss. We don’t have the money to cover it."

General Massachusetts

The Future Generation Wind project will be fully constructed in Plymouth, but because of the size of its parts, they'll be unable to be transported on highways, Bourne Board of Selectmen Chair Stephen Mealy said Thursday. The project would require about 24 oversized trucks to carry parts as large as 170 feet long, over 15 feet wide and almost 16 feet tall. ...About 80 feet of guardrail on Head of the Bay Road would need to be removed, Mealy said, so the trucks can navigate the road to the entrance of the farm in Buzzards Bay. 

General Massachusetts

The proposed delivery of turbine parts has become a high-profile issue for selectmen and was the subject of a special code-enforcement meeting among town inspectors last week. Selectmen at this point do not want to be portrayed as opposed to alternative-energy efforts or local business in general, but members are trying to protect local interests as they relate to infrastructure impacts and early-morning Buzzards Bay motoring disruption.

General Massachusetts

The town's wind turbine zoning bylaw was last amended in 2013 when town meeting approved a revision that prohibits turbines with a capacity of more than 250 kilowatts anywhere in town. Both Wind 1 and Wind 2 have capacities of 1.65 megawatts, more than six times what’s permitted by the newer restrictions. The bylaw also limits to 6 decibels the allowable noise levels audible to neighbors from the machines.

General Massachusetts

Amid a last-minute opposition campaign, voters in the Berkshire County town of Otis decide today whether to borrow $6.4 million to build a 1.7-megawatt municipally owned wind turbine. The debt exclusion vote will consider a low-interest general obligation bond for the project on land off Algerie Road.

General Massachusetts

Granite Links sued to stop the turbine in 2011, and in 2013 an arbitrator ruled that Milton could build the turbine but could not operate it during golfing hours. The restriction meant the turbine, which had been expected to provide up to $800,000 a year for the town, would no longer be profitable, according to Milton’s planning director, William Clark.

General Massachusetts

{The turbine] was supposed to begin running in early 2011 and generate $50-60,000 worth of electricity towards the water plant’s yearly consumption of $120,000. Instead, it remained dormant for years after continuing mechanical issues ...Hanover Insurance took over the project for the town to avoid further taxpayer-funded cost overruns.

General Massachusetts

Otis is a townwide vote away from using wind-generated electricity to power all its municipal buildings.

General Massachusetts

The final part of the delivery route involves Head of the Bay Road from Belmont Circle north and west to the entrance to the Mann acreage that abuts Route 25 and where a four-turbine wind-farm is being constructed. A second ship in New Bedford, meanwhile, is offloading turbine parts shipped from Spain. Other turbine pieces come from various states, while the blades are imported from China, Gagnon said.

General Massachusetts

Ms. Maurer said the plan was to start delivering the equipment next week, on Tuesday, July 21. Board members stiffened at that prospect and said they were averse to granting the easement without being provided more information, including a set of engineering plans and the weight calculations done by Bayside.

General Massachusetts

"Under the legislation, the Investor Owned Utilities (IOU) receive 2.75 percent remuneration for payments under the contracts, however this amount is expected to be less than the amount of legal expense incurred to obtain approval of the solicitation process, approval of the contracts and compliance with ongoing reporting and rate setting requirements." While that sounds like Unitil may be losing money, Unitil is not quite sure yet to expect. 

General Maine Massachusetts

The state's Supreme Judicial Court has denied a petition by the town of Falmouth to review a zoning case concerning the town's controversial wind turbines.

General Massachusetts

Cape Wind has asked state regulators for more time to revive its stalled project after the state’s two major utilities backed out of buying power from the proposed offshore wind farm.

General Massachusetts

After being plagued by major, some say fatal, setbacks over the past several months, Cape Wind is still struggling to hold the ground the offshore-wind energy developer had previously gained.

General Massachusetts

Beaton told the Herald the decision to greenlight the terminal project in the first place was a mistake, given the uncertain future at the time for Cape Wind, which planned to plant 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound. “We shouldn’t have developed that, and I wouldn’t have,” Beaton said. 

General Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) agreed to give Falmouth $500,000 toward turbine maintenance and to absolve the town from a commitment to deliver over 3,000 in renewable energy certificates (RECs) stipulated in a 2009 agreement. The town was obligated to begin payment on a $1 million advance from the CEC in the form of RECs starting this week. 

General Massachusetts

A wind power experiment has come to an end at Walmart. The Arkansas-based operator of discount retail stores removed turbines from the parking lot of its Worcester supercenter in the last week and will now evaluate what it learned there and at two other U.S. sites, a spokeswoman for the company said.

General Massachusetts

Selectmen have decided not to sign on to a letter drafted by wind turbine developer Fairhaven Wind LLC touting the benefits of the two industrial wind turbines on town owned land.  At their meeting March 16, they said the language was a little too glowing and more like a press release.

General Massachusetts

What began as a well-conceived effort to be sustainable and fiscally responsible has become one of the most contentious and divisive issues in the town’s history. After the turbines were constructed, the town worked to gather public input. Had that commitment to inclusion been present before decisions were made to purchase and erect the turbines, some of the town’s darkest days may have been avoided. ...In January 2010, I called the construction of Wind I “the best of Falmouth” for 2009, noting that it was, “…one of the most significant achievements in the last decade locally.” I readily admit today that I was wrong. Why can’t the town?

General Massachusetts