Just think with a mere 1565 more of these you could generate as much electricity as a nucleur power plant .

Cigarettes don't cause cancer. Industrial scale wind turbines don't cause disruptions such as noise and light flicker to neighboring homes. Don't worry, be happy...the Guvnah is. Sad to say, the noise issue was again (see Mars Hill) downplayed by the developers and regulators. Those folks who live nearby are basically screwed...but bold, at least. Too bad all the folks who are thirlled by this don't live as close to these things as the Wylie family does.

We had one- and it wasn't the NIMBY's that canned it.

I applaud your efforts Vinalhaven, hope it will pay off in the future for you.

"Unexpected?" If they had done their homework they would have found it to be very expected. Corrupt, misleading developers and shills for the state are doing business as usual and people's lives are being ruined by the biggest scam since white bread.

leumas is volunteering his basement to store the spent fuel rods from Maine Yankee! Yippeeeee!

If I remember correctly, this project was voted unanimously by the people of Vinalhaven.

The secondary headline on this story, like many of the claims of wind advocates, is misleading.

These three generators will never produce 4.5 megawatts of electricity. That's their rated capacity. Wind generators are never 100 percent efficient.

According to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the three turbines on Beaver Ridge in Freedom produced 21 percent of their rated capacity for the months of July, August, and September this year.

Three 1.5 mw turbines that are rated to produce 9936 mw of power in that period of time, actually produced only 2085 mw.

These are the same size turbines as installed on Vinalhaven.

I think this is a great story of a community working together. We have the exact opposite in my town. The antis will not budge an inch. They have drawn a line in the sand. Too bad as I know there is some middle ground that can be explored. The thing I can't understand is the people that are against it are the ones that I would feel would be welcoming a chance to help clean up the planet with open arms...

For better or worse, there IS A PULSE that can either be felt or heard from these turbines, but you have to be close, it has to be windy enough for them to turn, and I think it helps if the wind is blowing towards you from the turbines, as it was one windy day when I drove along the Maine/Canadian side of the Mars Hill Wind Turbines.

For 19 years, I lived 50 yards from a 4 lane highway in NJ, that was always clogged with traffic. I got used to it, my lungs probably inhaled a lot of toxic materials, and it got to the point where I didn't even hear the crump of the auto accident or the sirens of the police cars when the autos collided within sight of my bedroom window.

What do you say to the unfairness' of life? Some people live well. Others live near factories, in ghettos, or even homeless. They call it PROGRESS, and most of us love our energy consuming devices.

I guess a lot more people will have to GET USED TO the PULSE OF WIND TOWERS, and that's the way it will be. Perhaps newer technology in coming years will alleviate some problems, but life will never be fair or equal, or LIKE THE GOOD OLD DAYS.

When people are lied to by a perverted siitng process in Maine.

When industrial wind lobbyists don't control a governor

, when science facts are denied as to the problems with feckless wind power.

When there is lack of tranparent process in siting.

When vested interests supercede the public benefit.

When fossil fuel reduction does not occur, and rates go up.

When base line power is not created , and pulse power is thought of as progress.

when natural gas is believed to be inferor to pulse power that demands fossil fuel back -up.

When politicians get their hands out of our pockets and rely on INDEPENDENT RESEARCH, and not THE WIND MAFIA for 'facts'

Then we may be better off.

For now, for the folks adversely affected, get a good lawyer,

and sue the SOB's!.

The technology has changed immensely since the dreaded Mars Hill turbines that everyone likes to talk about.

Go out to Vinalhaven and visit these things and see how terrible they are.

Also note that there are very very few homes anywhere nearby the turbines.

Also note that the town nearly unanimously voted this in (several hundred -3)

Also note how expensive electricity is out there, related to having power delivered via a cable who's lifespan is shorter than its loan!

This is really a step forward. Those nay-sayers out thre are the same ones keeping Maine in the stoneage. No wonder our best and brightest leave.

You cannot innovate without risk.

As someone whose family was was negatively impacted by a neighbors wind turbine I would like to share some advice. The first thing I will tell you is you will NEVER get used to the noise. In response to the gentleman who said to, you can't. Because turbine noise is never the same. It is dependent on numerous factors, like the wind speed, temperature on the ground, temperature in the air, direction the turbine is facing, ect. The second is hire a good attorney today or tomorrow at the latest. Don't delay as he or she needs to be involved from the very beginning. Come up with a game plan and start documenting everything. Also start recording all meetings where these turbines are discussed. Third, make an appointment with your doctor and get a baseline blood pressure reading. And just talk about the situation and keep them abreast of what is going on. Keep track of any new health issues and be sure to document them.

After two years because we had documented everything regarding noise and health issues the turbine was removed. Our childrens doctor, the health dept. and noise experts helped to make sure it was taken down. We also could not have survived without the great help and advice from our attorney. I hope somehow everyone can find an acceptable solution to the situation all of you are in. After all this America and we are supposed to have equal rights. Its not fair for the neighbors to carry the burden of these things for the whole community.

One would think that given the amount of time and effort poured into making the propellers on our nuclear submarine fleet whisper quiet, our government might share some of this same technology to make wind power stations quieter.

Orville- check historical weather reports. You'll find that the summer months are the low wind months for this area. The winter months are high wind months. I would also be very curious on how you came about these FERC generation numbers if in fact is what they are as FERC does not release generation numbers to the public and then only with non-disclosure terms.

Boy--those eyesores will probably hurt tourism. I sure wouldn't want to vacation there now.

What you have is the Wnd Industry and a foolish lobbyied legislature, too lazy to research, sticking it you know where to Maine citizens, who are good , honest, albeit naive citizens on this issue.

Shame on the legislature! It will respond, because "We the People " will kick them the heck out. Mainers , as your electric rates go up from this scam, you know who to blame. As your back yard is destroyed for decades, you know who to blame. As you allow the likes of Angus King and son to get more wealth out of your pockets, as they deceive and collude with the Wind mafia, we will all pay, until we kicjk these slime out. Smarten up Mainers, this is just the tip of the Wind Mafia in Maine. As the 'illegal taking" of territory continues, with an illegal and flawed process, this rebellion will grow .

The siting process in Maine is not based on science, but political expediency and industrial influence.

Remove that from the system, and the process and potential energy source MAY become useful in the future. Deny citizen rights and allow ignorant "central planning" to continue, and the result will not be a fruitful one, EVER.

Capacity factor of 21% in the lowest wind months in the state... not too bad. They also happen to be the lowest electrical load months. Pretty convenient in all actuality.

Biomass and other thermal plants shut down completely for a few months out of the year during the "shoulder months" for maintenance. My calculator shows me a capacity factor of 0% there.

Basically, a thermal plant has an annual capacity factor of 80-85%. A well sighted wind farm has a capacity factor of 35-40%. Factor in the cost of fuel and it's a push.... less emissions.

And the people complaining about the noise of their neighbors wind turbine... those small turbines make 50x the noise that the industrial sized ones do. It's all about blade speed. Those little suckers whip at thousands of RPMs vs. tens of RPMs. That is an apples and oranges comparison.

GoHeels, I agree with you about RPMs, but the characteristics of turbine noise are very similar. Most especially the thumping sound which will literally drive some people crazy. The only difference is the thumping is occurring faster with a smaller turbine. I have spent time around the industrial turbines as well and I agree the smaller ones can throw a higher db reading. But the db level is just one piece of the puzzle.

The most important part of this discussion is find a solution for those being affected by the noise. With winter coming it will only get worse.

How many tax payer dollars from other than Vinalhaven are being used to fund this pie in the sky? Why do we always see the maximum output as the headline in theses stories? What we really need to know is the number of kilowatt hours per year produced. Just because it is green doesn't make it better.