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10/1/08
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19 comments
Lincoln group fears wind farm impact
LINCOLN, Maine — Nadia Wotton swims in the waters of Long Pond near the gentle slopes of Rollins Mountain every day in the summer. She spends half the year in a camp along the edge of the water, and she doesn’t take it for granted, she said Tuesday. “My fear is that the aesthetics, the whole feel of the area and the views of the ridge, I really feel that this will be gone soon,” Wotton said. “That’s my biggest fear.” That’s why Wooton is a member of the newly formed Friends of Rollins Ridge group, an organization of about a dozen town residents that is investigating, and likely will oppose, a proposed $120 million wind farm that, if approved, will go on sites in Burlington, Lee, Lincoln and Winn, including Rollins Mountain. First Wind of Massachusetts will apply by the end of the year for permits to build 40 1.5-megawatt windmills creating as much as 60 megawatts of electricity through Evergreen Wind Power, a subsidiary of First Wind. Lincoln would have 19 or 20 turbines; Winn, three; Lee, seven; and Burlington, 12. Two turbine sites are listed as alternates. The company also would install a 115,000-volt transmission line that would run from the north end of Rollins Mountain to a Mattawamkeag connection to the New England grid. First Wind is building a 38-turbine farm on Stetson Mountain between Danforth and Springfield and operating a 28-turbine wind farm in Mars Hill. First Wind advertises its projects as creating no air or water pollution, lessening dependency on oil and tapping into a limitless natural resource while hedging against the electricity droughts seen in California. First Wind claims the Lincoln project will generate 168 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. The Friends of Rollins Ridge group is not generally opposed to wind power, but questions whether a wind farm is a good fit with such a pristine area as Long Pond, said Bagley Mountain Road resident Gary Steinberg. “The fact that so many changes will be coming with this project and that we’re dealing with a company that is coming from out of state has me wondering whether we are … getting into something that we cannot get out of,” said Harry C. Epp, a Folsom Pond Road resident and group member. The group fears that the project will create noise and flickering light with its massive windmill blades, which will disturb nearby residents and wildlife, decrease property values, be an eyesore and provide no immediate or direct benefit to town electricity users, who buy electricity retail from Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. The project is slated to sell electricity wholesale to the New England grid. Residents near the Mars Hill wind farm owned by First Wind have complained of noise that disrupts their sleep and also about decreased property values. First Wind has responded by saying that the project makes little noise and complies with Maine Department of Environmental Protection regulations regarding noise. Wotton said that the group is just beginning its research. She wishes that the project’s timetable would slow down, perhaps by the town declaring a moratorium on wind farm development, until everybody else can catch up. The group has some time. First Wind has said it will not be applying for DEP and Lincoln planning board permits until the end of the year. Ruth Birtz, Lincoln’s economic development director, said that an Audubon Society study of the company’s Mars Hill site found no significant avian or animal displacement caused by the windmills there. Lincoln and First Wind, as well as the other municipalities, also are still negotiating tax breaks for the company if the project is approved. Several proposals will likely be ready for Lincoln’s Town Council in December, Birtz said. The Friends of Rollins Ridge group, meanwhile, wants to have meetings, recruit more members, speak to the council about the project, tour the Mars Hill and Stetson Mountain sites with councilors and planning board members and continue its research. “Lincoln could become a completely different place because of this project,” Steinberg said.
Comments
After the erection of the wind tower the power is sent off to the grid. This is like Millinocket that is built on top of a hydro dam yet the residence pay more for electricity than anyplace in the country. Think globally but act locally. I called the DEP and was told the noise decible level had not changed in ME.The official could not ,however , tell me the current level for Stetson Mt. Mars Hill has NEVER been in compliance with state law...yet First Wind was allowed to build another wind farm.Now some will say they are in compliance but the tests were paid for by First Wind and declared bogus by an outside engeneer.... paid for by Mars Hill residents. The allegations against them that prompted an investigation by the Attorney General in NY were among other things, bribery of public officials , fraud and false documents. Our AG office says this is not something that they would investigate. Go to windaction.org ...scroll down to the post about ME 's energy policy. It was written in the Sun Journal. Compare it to Rhode Island. Then you will have an idea about good govt. vs. poor , sloppy and incompetent govt. First Wind held an "informational meeting" where they demonstrated that they are unwilling to answer residents' questions in public. First Wind employed the "divide and conquer" method and when a question was asked, they directed the questioning resident to another area in the room for the answer rather than have the question answered in the presence of other concerned citizens. By doing so they avoided any discussion or further issues from being raised.
First Wind is trying to push the project through the individual towns with as little citizen involvement as possible, just as they did in Mars Hill. Citizens of Lincoln,Winn, Lee and Burlington, PLEASE GET INVOLVED before they succeed in ruining our landscape and beautiful views, only to send the minimal power generated elsewhere! Notify your elected officials! From Firrt Wind Holdings S-1 Securities ans Excahnge Commission Submission for Stock Filing "WNDY" OTC First Wind say the following: "as of and for the year ended December 31, 2007 were prepared assuming we would continue as a going concern; however, our recurring losses from operations, negative operating cash flows, accumulated deficit and need to obtain adequate funding to procure turbines and fund capital expenditures raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern. The consolidated financial statements do not include any adjustments that may result from the outcome of this uncertainty. If we are unable to obtain additional debt or equity financing, we may have to curtail our development activities or be forced to sell assets, perhaps on unfavorable terms, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. The summary consolidated statement of operations data for three months ended March 31, 2007 and 2008 and the summary consolidated balance sheet data as of March 31, 2008 are derived from our unaudited interim consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. "
Any one want to invest in Maine in this initial public offering, let alone rely on their ability to exist? THEY SOUND BROKE!!! get their prospectus at http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1434804/000104746908008563/a2186834zs-1.htm READ RISK FACTORS.THEY ARE SOO HEAVY IN DEBT, is there any more debt they are not showing?
THERE ARE NO INDEPENDENT investigations of wind over water bodies for these TURBINES..FIRSTWIND HAS BEEN ALLOWED SO FAR TO GETAWAY WITH THIS STUFF. WE NEED REAL SCIENCE, NOT PSUDO SCIENCE. MAINE DEP MUST PAY TO GET SCIECE DONE, NOT FIRSTWIND, a highly indebted holding company. THEY ARE FOLLWING THE SAME TACTICS USED IN OTHER STATES HERE....WE ARE SO DUMB IF WE DONT SEE IT.... GET PRIVATE LAND DEALS WITH NAIVE INDIVIDUALS IN NEEDED REAL EASTATE< HAVE SQUELCH CLAUSES IN THEIR LEASE, SALE ARRANGMENTS, TEMPT NAIVE PUBLIC OFFICIALS WITH TAX INCREMENTAL FUNDING....THEN DOT THE I AND CROSS THE "T" with PUBLIC HEARING TO A SOLD POPULACE TO OVERWHELMED TO REACT...UNITE FOLKS...ITS YOUR MOUNTAINS, REAL ESTATE, STATE.....POTENTIAL AND ACTUAL CORRUPTION COULD BE NEAR ....!! This is just one more example of the kooks and libs who whine and pout about energy, preach alternatives to nuclear plants, practically self-arouse over solar and water and corn power, call the oil companies evil and racist (can't quite figure out that one), prance around in their rags not washed since they attended Woodstock-----"like wow,man"----- and then scream and hold their breath when someone suggests putting up wind towers because the "...aesthetics, the whole feel of the area and the views of ther ridge..." will be lost. How wonderful that an organization wants to develop green energy in this part of the State. This is the kind of development that we need to see occuring all over the US. The region is so economically depressed that I have to believe that such a facility might even produce a few good paying jobs. Yeah, typical hysterical (and ignorant) NIMBY screaming. Like RocklandPhil said, these folks want to declare the sky is falling because someone wants to, let's see, provide clean renewable power to the region, pay the towns millions in lease payments and tax payments, and--oh, yeah--help save the world from global warming while they're at it. How awful.
People, please bother educating yourself about wind power's track record all over the world--and the need to build American energy independence--before you start hollering about "PSUDO [sic] SCIENCE" and declaring the armageddon is here. Denmark gets a full 20% of their electricity from wind (I've been there, BTW), and they laugh at us for being so far behind the rest of the civilized world. With people like the commenters above on the loose, we'll be floating in ice-cap melt before anything changes.
BTW, First Wind is actually on very firm financial footing through their (very well-heeled and patient) backers like D.E. Shaw, et al. Unlock your ALL CAPS key for a spell and read that prospectus you mentioned, mountainman, and you'll see. Wow! It never stops amazing me that people think they are the victors if they sling the most insults!
I too went to the above-mentioned First Wind’s presentation at the school with an open mind. I drove 300 miles to get there. I wanted to understand what area residents could expect. I have a house in Lincoln and I love the town and its people. I was expecting to be able to draw my own conclusions about what benefits towns-people would derive versus the tradeoffs they would have to make. The only observations I made (and sputtered about on the way home) were the following: 1) There appears to have been a regulatory requirement for a public hearing (in order to go forward with permit filings) that apparently was satisfied on that night. 2) There seems to be have been little follow-through from regulators as to whether the hearing adequately addressed people’s concerns. Does anyone know different? I found the tone of those presenting highly offensive and disrespectful. Shame on them for not feeling any moral obligation to provide the facts to the people. It appeared to me that they didn’t care what the attendees thought. I am assuming there will be no recourse for this except when it comes time to face the final judgment. My expectation is they will continue to do what they do. Factual discussion would have been my preference over the closed-door approach, even if the information had been read from a script! I hoped to hear that tasteful, painstaking care had been put into a design that would keep the windmills positioned along the countryside in such a fashion that they would present little threat to the homes off at a distance. Silly me! Instead, my impression is the design may have been more heavily influenced by where investors were able to make land acquisitions without necessarily notifying sellers of their intent. I still don’t have enough facts to say wind power represents an evil force to Lincoln. I am hoping to eventually see the windmills as a win-win situation. I am, however, 100% in agreement with the theory that solid information makes for the first step of putting people's minds at ease. ALL THE INSULTS IN THE WORLD WON'T CHANGE THAT!
Wind power in West Denmark. Lessons for the UK. © By Dr V.C. Mason (October 2005)
Summary: Although one fifth of the electrical power produced annually in West Denmark is generated by its enormous capacity of wind turbines, only about 4% of the region’s total power consumption is provided from this source. Most of the output of wind power is surplus to demand at the moment of generation and has to be exported at reduced prices to preserve the integrity of the domestic grid. Savings in carbon emissions are minimal. To diminish exports and lower carbon emissions, plans are now in hand to use surplus wind power for resistance heating at local combined-heat-and-power plants.
When First Wind met with locals prior to starting the Stetson Mt. project...the standard answer to all questions from Matt Kearn (project manager)was ,"I don't know." There were only a few questions answered re. the Mars Hill wind farm. Unfortunately...the answers were not true. Same with DEP then and now. Who gets to break the law continually with impunity and arrogance....Those who have bribed everybody . Why is our AG office so arrogant in saying (when laws are broken) "That is not our concern." The newspapers will not print articles which show First Wind to be morally and fiscally bankrupt. First Wind was sued by a company called Surplec for non payment of a transformer . The transformer was used in Mars Hill. As far as I know Surplec was never paid. The noise decible level is still way too high in Mars Hill. Yet the red carpet was thrown out for these crooks for the Stetson Mt. wind farm by LURC and DEP. Hey critics Research before you criticize. You might find out these folks know a heck of a lot more than you. How about a windfarm off Rockland which would produce 100 times more electricity than the anemic windfarms inland with fewer towers? All the wind is offshore. Now go back to your Rush Limbaugh show and leave the thinking up to those willing to question the government's reliance on shady companies willing to ruin our lakes and landscape so Massachusetts can have more power to blow while our rates soar. Happy camping. Exactly how many BTU’s can we get out of a single NIMBY?
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happycamper1, you're sounding quite testy this morning.
Remenber, McCain and Palin on November 4th !! I don't think that anyone is against wind power saving the world and the polar ice cap. However, if you would look at the US wind maps that show the best placement of these windmills, you would see that the area up north is poor or marginal, at best. This is not an appropriate location for the installation. I too drove the 200 miles to that meeting. It was a great disappointment. this is corporate greed at its worst. There will be somewhere around 5 permanant jobs after they have leveled these hills and turned them into an industrial park. I think it would be much more appropriate to place these windmills in areas where noise is not an issue, like in existing industrial parks. Or maybe down the I95 corridor. Lets be smart about how we do this and not just let this land grab ruin northern Maine. I do believe that placing these windmills directly adjacent to a number of lakes that are known to have existing echoing is not the best idea. The models that have been developed by First Wind plug in the lake surface as a "Hard surface". We all know that there is a substantial difference between sound over pavement and sound over water. It is our responsibility to determine how far off these models are. And saying that we won't know about the accoustic levels until the windmills go up is just stupid. They can do better than that.
Rocklandphil I may have been somewhat testy, prompted by your namecalling. Early congratulations to McCain/Palin on their runner up finish Nov. 4th. The windmill issue is not political. It is about being truthful, expecting state gov. to work with local gov. and not do business behind closed doors. This seems to be worsening. Ignoring the locals and quietly buying peoples rights away while getting tax breaks and fed. subsidies to finally erect 300-400 ft. towers with generators the size of busses is shady business at best, corporate stormtrooping at worst. You have to see their pictures to get the full effect of the scope of these monstrosities on the landscape. They are coming your way! Also Mars Hill is over the noise limits set by the DEP. An expansion is being planned before the noise issue is even dealt with. Augusta doesn't seem to care. Vertical axis windmills make less noise and more power, but Maine gets old technology. They have to sell their old junk first and then expect the taxpayers to give them breaks to install the new models. Better than subprime mortgages any day. People who type in BOLD LETTERS scare me.... happycamper, you mean "kooks" ? |
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