AURORA, Maine — A trailer carrying a section of a wind turbine tower to the Bull Hill project site overturned Monday, dumping the tower section into a ditch alongside a private road off Route 9.
The driver of the truck was not injured and no fuel spilled, according to Jack Parker, president of Reed & Reed, a contractor on the project responsible for construction of access roads, crane paths, turbine pads and electrical substations related to the project, according to the company’s website.
“What’s important here is that no one was hurt,” Parker said Monday afternoon.
The accident happened around noontime, Parker said, when the truck and trailer hit the soft shoulder of the road, causing the trailer to tip. The truck itself did not turn over, according to Parker.
Parker, who said he wasn’t sure how large the tower section was, said a crane would be brought in sometime in the next day or so to place the tower onto a new trailer.
The Bull Hill site is about five miles from the place where the accident occurred.
Parker said about 2 p.m. Monday that the truck and trailer were no longer in the road and it was passable for the company and people who own camps on the network of dirt and gravel roads in the area.
The $76 million Bull Hill project is the latest wind development effort in the state.
All of the tower sections arrived by ship from Denmark by early July and are being taken to the Hancock County worksite, about 18 miles northeast of Ellsworth.
The builder, First Wind, has said the construction project involves about 200 jobs.
When completed, the 34-megawatt Bull Hill will bring First Wind’s total capacity in Maine to 185 megawatts, or enough to supply the energy needs for 85,000 homes, according to First Wind, which has built four other projects in Maine and additional projects in northeastern and western states.
First Wind’s other Maine wind farms include the Mars Hill project in Aroostook County, Rollins Wind project in Penobscot County and the Stetson I and II projects in Washington County. TransCanada’s Kibby Wind project in Franklin County, which generates enough power for about 50,000 homes, is the largest project in New England.
First Wind has said it hopes to have the site up and running sometime in November.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Just like the anti-wind pundits always hoped…”Big Wind Hits The Ditch!”
You should buy some stock in their energy production.
“When completed, the 34-megawatt Bull Hill will bring First Wind’s total
capacity in Maine to 185 megawatts, or enough to supply the energy needs
for 85,000 homes,” ……I wish that BDN would point out that the above only happens when the wind is blowing and that like 20-30% of the time…. Big wind doesn’t blow, it sucks………
any idea (1) how many of those 85,000 homes are in Maine? Waht is the grid distribution capacity from this project to Maine power users? (2 ) Is this feeding the U.S. power grid or the Canadian? (3) how many public $ of all kinds are behind this project (4) what is the cost per kwh actually expected to be delivered ( 20-30% of potential) (5) what is the expected life of each turbine and is there a requirement for the company to remove the entire installation when that useful life is expired?
I am just starting to tune into the realities of industrial wind and I must say so far I am more frightened than impressed at the huge amount of government subsidy for very low levels of deminstrated efficacy and actual costs increases, not cost saving to consumers..
Also I am wary and weary of these false job numbers.. There are very few local jobs during construction and virtually zero after construction..It is lal so bogus and pumped up.
Lindsay, thank King Angus for all this. Remember it in November.
Lindsay – the perhaps 1,800 giant turbines and transmission planned for Maine will effect global cooling to the same degree as only what 1% of the Maine woods do every year. That puts in perspective what an idiotic tradeoff this is. Maiming 360 miles of ridgelines in our tourism state for virtually nothing. And let the shills try to argue with these figures – they are based on NRCM’s own numbers. (NRCM is a huge wind pusher).
Please read the pdf you will find by googling:
NRCM’s CO2 – Analysis
Please distribute this report widely if you are so inclined. Thank you.
By the way, this is the third time I am posting this as a reply to you. The BDN has removed it both times.
PenobScot,
Thanks. I too am very disappointed in NRCM’s position on wind.
I am very interested to learn more about what role the Maine woods play in regional and global co 2 levels..makes sense to me especially with all that water that they must be very important.
NRCM scares us and perhaps themselves with tons of CO2. The problem is they never put that into perspective. When put into a perspective we can relate to, i.e., what all of these terrible turbines equate to in terms of the Maine woods’ natural CO2 sequestration and cooling via evapotransport, the absurdity of the tradeoff becomes clear. Upon realization of this absurdity, anyone who is not guided by blind dogma or personal financial gain will ask what on earth is NRCM advocating. What on earth did the compromised Energy and Utilities Committee sell to the legislature in the form of the expedited wind law, a law written by the wind industry. A Committee compromised by wind industry conflicts of interest.
Too many progressives swallowed the kool aid on wind..it is now an impenetrable meme..no one who swallowed this whole is even willing to look at the very significant and dangerous public policy issues around the reality of industrial wind.
PenobScot..you are so wonderfully well informed and articulate..your voice is needed out there in the world as an anti dote to the industrial wind kool aid.
I invite you to join our conversation at TED http://www.ted.com/conversations/12857/what_will_be_the_best_renewabl.html where you may find a global audience for what have you have to say about wind. ( You have to become a TED member..no fee..and you needn’t provide even a picture of yourslef but it is a great place to network on Global issues)
CO2 is not a problem. It’s is valuable food for plants. The concept that CO2 is bad for the environment was proven to be false years ago.
Man made global warming from CO2 is the biggest lie in history
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0707/0707.1161v2.pdf
tosh
absolute tosh
anyone who still believes that co 2 is not a cause of global warming is just out of it and failing in stewraship for current earth and future earth,
tosh
tosh
tosh
Those 1,800 turbines will occupy far less than 1% of the Maine woods, including all the associated infrastructure.
Before you get too worked up over it, Lindsay, compare those same parameters for other methods of generation.
http://youtu.be/j5X73VT5dA4
Even a small scale Nuclear power plant would produce 10 times the energy and that would be on only 100 acres of property and would run 24/7 with no carbon emissions. Lets bring Maine Yankee back.. big mistake when it was decommissioned.
…and kill us all.
Just as all the nuclear plants in the U.S. have killed everyone around them, right? Do you know how many people have died in the U.S. as a result of nuclear power generation accidents? I think the number is hovering around zero.
Ask the people in Japan who used to live near the plant that melted down last year. And then come back in a couple of hundred years when there’s 20 times as much nuclear waste and still no way to safely dispose of it.
Our transmission rates just went up by 19.6% on July 1 due to wind. And the rate increases due to feelgood wind have only just begun.
Google “What every Maine ratepayer needs to know”
The 85,000 homes number is misleading in other ways, as well. I suspect the reporter has relied on a First Wind press release for his numbers. He’s been had. ENERGY needs for 85,000 homes? Not hardly. ELECTRICITY needs would have been a more honest statement, even though we know that’s misleading too. Maine homes use a lot of non-electricity ENERGY – heating, transportation, etc. It’s just one more way First Wind has gotten the Maine media to help sell their industry to a gullible public.
What is wrong with the Maine media? They are terrible in covering this issue.
Presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney announced yesterday he is against the wind industry’s Production Tax Credit, yet there is not a single story about this in Maine. Dissolution of that tax credit would stop every wind project in the state, yet the Maine media do not see fit to touch that story.
It is journalism by press release.
Oil and coal fired plants run at about 40% – 50% efficiency, less when you factor in the energy cost of minimg and transporting the fuel to them. Hydro runs at about 40%, even when you have huge upstream reservoirs to control the inflow to the generating reservoir. All that water that goes over the top of the dam doesn’t generate any elecrtricity at all. And they have to drain the reservoirs down every year to make room for the spring runoff. The amount of land area devastated by inundation in a hydropower project dwarfs the cleared areas needed for wind. NIMBY anti-wind people really don’t have a clue.
Ah yes – I cry on my way to the bank with
every check I get from selling electricity made by windmills. And the town of Lincoln is getting 1/2 million every year and Burlington too – yes we are suffering here.
billy..is that true? is lincoln getting 1/2 million every year? how does that work? I was in Lincoln memorial day weekend to do the family graves and was shocked to look up from where the ice house used to be ( my favorite play place) and see that project just totally dominating the lake.
How much of that .5 million is going to the property owners whose lake front property is completely devalued by that? do these lakefront owners get reduced evaluations or any form of compensation?
Is the mill getting any direct enefit from this renewable energy being so close to it?
From the smell?????
Officially known as shut up money.
I hope the road is much improved when they haul these things out in a few years.
Ya, with the taxpayer flipping the bill to dismantle them. Might as well, the taxpayer is paying to have them erected
I could put up with these “War of the Worlds” contraptions if they lowered OUR electric rates.
Quite the opposite. Google “What every Maine ratepayer needs to know”
Angus exploted the Maine rate payers when he was Governor and now again with the wind mills
Sadly, they will mar our landscape even in failure for eternity. Ever been out west? There are miles and miles of rusted out windmills.
Those are oil derricks, not windmills.
No need to move it. They’ve got one where it belongs.
Make a real nice culvert now wouldn’t it ?? Someday that’s all those towers will be good for :-/
There is no way they will power 85 homes let alone 85,000 homes.
They run around 16% capacity at most. on a good day.
The problem is we all know it’s bull crap, and the people who don’t know, can’t be taught.
Maybe King Angus will go up and share some of his hot air with his windmills. That will make them turn.
where did u get your info? LOL i erect em/been in em/been up em/LOOKED AT THE DATA PLATES in em!!!! verrrry rarely does mankind do smart/clean/renewable /energy projects! wind turbines ARE one of our better choices!! the technology internal is beyond your capacity NO DOUBT!!!
One thing about engineers, is they believe everything they are told.. engineers don’t invent much because the liberal schools told them nothing can be learned beyond whats on the name plate.
Data Plates LOL!!!
Good boy, your hired.
your wright dude engineers don’t invent- let alone fabricate!.They design-thats how we made it to the moon.maybe if we stay optimistic we might even make it to another planet before we destroy the little ball were on with all the nukes and petroleum/greed/money/and nay sayers that don’t see a good thing when it happens in their gen!
I can’t be bought to lie for a company. Yet I can understand how you would believe everything your employer tells you, because some companies tell their employees on a need to know basics.
“Engineers don’t invent much”? Really??
Way to show your ignorance.
(By the way? I used “your” correctly. You did not. Don’t slam on a profession that requires way more intelligence than you clearly have, especially if you can’t even use the correct grammar to do so.)
I’m impressed, The laws of physics are limited to engineers, who have been taught that you cannot do that.
Thank you for the FREE grammat lesson, summer off I take it.
According to FERC data, Maine wind turbines are operating at around an average of 30% capacity factor, overall. To put that in perspective, Maine wind turbines are effectively operating about 4 months out of the year – maybe a little less – relative to their nameplate capacity and annual energy output.
Maine currently has just about 400 MW of operating wind generation capacity. Its contribution to the New England grid is tiny – very tiny. You want to build wind farms? Fine, do it on your own dime, not the taxpayers’. Don’t build them in places where it’s not wanted or negatively impacts people. It’s just not a significant enough source of energy to ruin the best parts of Maine or its people’s lives.
I’ll sign on as soon as you get them to stop subsidizing oil at many times the $ they spend on wind.
The trouble is, turbines have no “capacity”. I am sure this is beyond your “scientific capacity” as well.
Every turbine, whether wind or water, has a nameplate capacity on it when it leaves the factory. Apparently your capacity for research and reality is somewhat limited.
For those who have not been on Bull Hill this is the best thing that has happened to at least one of the dam things. Hopefully there might be more.
It sucks big time to get stuck behind one of them on Route 9. Unless you catch them on a truck hill you are going to poke along at a slow speed and if you don’t get around them on any of the hills you will come to a complete stop for about 10 minutes while it turns off of Route 9 onto the pond road.
Karma
So you are a Buddhist? If you state you are not then you have zero right to use the word karma.
Boo Hoo.
Sounds like a job for the heavy Chevy PabMainer….
Because that is so much better than a crane.
You know it.
Much better.
How to ruin Maine in one easy lesson with King Angus right behind collecting big bucks for it.
bull hill, huh……..almost made it.
Might be there’s to much bull on that hill already.
I love these things. They’re beautiful. And they’re a damn sight cheaper than fracking the world and sending troops to die for oil.
We don’t use oil to make electricity. We use oil to drive and heat. We don’t use electricity for those things. So your statement is off base.
No, my statement about fracking is dead on. And while it plays a small part in electrical generation, petroleum is too big a part of our energy picture, especially in emergency power, so I stand by that too.
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
Said the man with his head in the sand.
Time to get informed. Less than 1% of New England’s electricity comes from oil. They’ve will do nothing to reduce oil consumption to any appreciable degree. You bought the marketing hype and First Wind thanks you.
Their projects will NOT power 85,000 homes. That sort of statement is total BS and likely derives straight from a First Wind press release. How come there are never any press releases when an attorney general forces them to sign an ethics code of conduct (NY State) or a U.S. congressman (D-NY) advises that theirs is a business model of “Lie, Cheat and Corrupt”.
I’m glad nobody was hurt but that wind tubine part would have prevented a whole lot of CO2 gassing into the atmosphere if it had stayed in China where it belongs. As it stands, where are we going to put all these huge rusting hulks when they start to crumble in a few years? The local landfill?
The same people will be panhandling for federal handouts to take them down. In Italy they are starting to arrest people for these wind installations.
Wind projects are reuired to have funding available for decommissioning before they can start operating. The metals will be recycled and what cannot be recycled will be disposed of responsibly. The parts that are disposed of will probably take up far less space in the landfill than the stuff you will throw out from your house in the same 20 years it takes for a wind turbine to wear out.
So does the BDN. How does an article about a careless and potentially dangerous accident become a promo piece for First Wind and Reed & Reed?
I was thinking the same thing. I am so glad you said this. It needed to be said. It speaks volumes.
Wind energy sounds nice, but its only being built because of the federal (taxpayer) subsidies. Then, when they lose money, they’ll write those losses off on their taxes as well.
Nuclear power is far from perfect, but their really isnt a greener energy alternative with anything close to the capacity we would need. Everyone wants & expects electricity, but hate to do what it takes to modernize the grid – both production & distribution. Try building a nuclear plant or a new transmission line…you’ll be spending millions of dollars filing court papers and making law firms rich. We need to close old nuclear power plants and build new ones. Equipment & concrete age. The plants are well beyod their designed life. If we dont replace them, there will be an accident due to plant failure. It is just a matter of time. It wont be because nuclear power isnt safe. If you dont replace a highway bridge, eventually it collapses. Same thing.
http://www.rocks.org.hk/activity2009/Capacity_factor%5B1%5D.pdf
. & 2009ElsevierLtd.Allrightsreserved
For two decades now,the capacity factor of windpower measuring the average energy delivered has been assumed in the 30–35% range of the name plate capacity. Yet,the mean realized value for Europe over the last five years is below 21%; accordingly private cost is two-third higher and the reduction of carbon emissions is 40% less than previously expected.
Good! Leave it there!!
Mitt Romney just came out against extending the wind industry’s PTC (Production Tax Credit).
Ya but that’s what he says this week :-/
The same thing happened in VT last week. A truck carrying a tower segment to Lowell, VT for the GMP/Gaz Metro project, also being built by Reed and Reed.
Link to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Td3Y8ZOSWI&feature=plcp
INDUSTRIAL WIND TURBINES
ARE A SHAM AND DO NOT PROVIDE CLEAN ENERGY! Not one coal or gas plant the world
over has been decommissioned because of IWTs…and eliminating our dependence
on fossil fuels is their whole purpose. To quote an expert: “Because wind blows
intermittently, electric utilities must either keep their conventional power
plants running all the time to make sure the lights don’t go dark, or
continually ramp up and down the output from conventional coal-or gas-fired
generators (called “cycling”). But coal-fired and gas-fired generators are
designed to run continuously, and if they don’t, fuel consumption and emissions
generally increase.” This is happening worldwide, and in places like Colorado
and Texas where CO2 and power plant pollution have increased since installing
wind farms:
http://www.forbes.com/2011/07/19/wind-energy-carbon.htmlhttp://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_15081808
http://www.clepair.net/IerlandUdo.html
http://www.thespec.com/news/ontario/article/610422–cost-of-green-energy…
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-07-25/news/bs-ed-wind-farms-201107…
The wind industry is built on crony capitalism, it is the only way it can
exist. Taxpayer money builds them and power companies are mandated to buy wind
generated power at much higher rates than conventionally produced power. There
is no true benefit, except to wind power companies, politicians and
lobbyists.
INDUSTRIAL WIND TURBINES ARE A SHAM AND DO NOT PROVIDE CLEAN ENERGY! Not one coal or gas plant the world over has been decommissioned because of IWTs…and eliminating our dependence on fossil fuels is their whole purpose. To quote an expert: “Because wind blows intermittently, electric utilities must either keep their conventional power plants running all the time to make sure the lights don’t go dark, or continually ramp up and down the output from conventional coal-or gas-fired generators (called “cycling”). But coal-fired and gas-fired generators are designed to run continuously, and if they don’t, fuel consumption and emissions generally increase.” This is happening worldwide, and in places like Colorado and Texas where CO2 and power plant pollution have increased since installing wind farms:
http://www.forbes.com/2011/07/19/wind-energy-carbon.htmlhttp://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_15081808
http://www.clepair.net/IerlandUdo.html
http://www.thespec.com/news/ontario/article/610422–cost-of-green-energy…
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-07-25/news/bs-ed-wind-farms-201107…
The wind industry is built on crony capitalism, it is the only way it can exist. Taxpayer money builds them and power companies are mandated to buy wind generated power at much higher rates than conventionally produced power. There is no true benefit, except to wind power companies, politicians and lobbyists.
The wind industry is built on capitalism? Perhaps its capitalism which brainwashes people into believe fossil fuels are a better alternative, after-all, wind power doesnt fit into the capitalist model. Capitalism is all about exploitation. Kinda hard to exploit the wind.
How many new coal or oil fired plants have NOT been built because of wind generated power being available? Have you noticed that the population is expanding exponentially? Do you think all those new people want to live without power? Take the blinders off.
WOW ,ya know when i was in tech school a teacher of turbine technology for 35 years told me the thing that bugged him the most was the current generation of you dudes and dudetts are filled with cynicism!,blocking your capacity to LEARN! wind turbine technology has been around alonnnng time,and it is the best rational thing mankind has accomplished since the cave man sparked his first fire!!
If Industrial Wind Turbines are so fantastic, and can compete with traditional forms of clean energy, why are they almost totally funded by taxpayer $$$$? I hope all you liberal, tree huggers change your votes in November because Mitt just announced he is drying up the fund for renewable energy, especially Wind. It is the only way to save our beautiful mountains from destruction and prohibitive energy prices. The “Upgrades” to be able to handle the intermittent surges from wind turbines is already costing us 20% more, and that is just a start. Europe is already (after 30 years) beginning to see the folly and are shutting down many of their projects because the grid is not up to the task, and Spain is bankrupt because they took a course to build huge wind projects and found out they can’t produce enough power. Please turbinetackler, don’t try and prove how smart you think you are. You only prove you are a shill for the industry.
Best not to dilute your argument with wrongful cliches. Tell me that I, for example, ever swallowed this this line of bull, to my face.
Then why does it still need public subsidies? If it’s been around so long it’s not an emerging technology and should be able to stand on it’s own.
Wow, the BDN can take a truck mishap and turn it into an advertisement for First Wind! What do the promotional numbers in the second half of the story have to do with a truck that lost its load? I guess the Maine media can squeeze a pitch for the wind industry into just about in any story.
I can see the tree huggers now! I TOLD YOU WIND POWER WAS BAD !!!!!
Just think of the trees damaged from the truck going off the road….LOL
We have had wind power for years right in Augusta But they called them DEMOCRATS
each and every building in these united state should have solar panels to generate at least some of the energy each building uses we will forever be at the mercy of big corporations and their running dogs ( congress) making us pick up the bill for mis-managed and expensive alternatives to the fossil fuel industry. the wind scam was highly touted and pushed by Angus King……I just hope folks remember that when november comes around
Good. A ditch is just where those bird/bat killing machines belong.
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/wind-farm-birds112011.html#cr
Worst idea ever for power. But that is what happens when people believe the lies from environmentalists.
What do you prefer, if not clean, renewable energy? By what process should we derive our power for mass consumption? I’m sorry you feel bad for the birds, of all things, but lots more die because of poison we pump into the land, sea and air then will ever die because of wind turbines.
A wind turbine kills an average of five birds per year. More are killed by cell towers than by wind towers.
Will these things actually break even over their 20-year life-span … to produce enough electricity to PAY for themselves? Are they even affordable to -install- without their “stimulus” subsidies?
What considerable number of jobs, income to Maine and electricity for Maine is coming from all of this?
What realistic, lasting benefit is MAINE getting all this? Some short-lived construction jobs, some local taxes, some (rather minimal) number of maintenance jobs?
We all pay for this stimulus spending – it’s more and more DEBT being imposed onto the American People. The whole country is in an uproar over cost-cutting (like LePuke … another pass-the-buck avoider of addressing the -cause- of the budget shortfalls) yet who are addressing the -cause- of the problem – stopping this blind rush to impose more and more DEBT onto America?
Texas Congressman Paul’s bill to “Audit the FED” passed last week (July 24th) with little fanfare – after Paul’s having sponsored such bills since first taking office in 1976 (including his urging to abolish that slavery-generating central-banking cartel).
There is very serious question about whether it can pass the Senate and the White House … because most of them are not addressing the -cause- of all this: the (private, corporate) Federal Reserve banking cartel’s strangle-hold on the American People. It’s called “debt-slavery”. Congress borrows ALL of our money from this cartel -AT INTEREST- … instead of (re)empowering the Treasury to issue interest-free money, like it did before the implementation of this corporate – for profit – system installed in 1913.
THAT is the source of the “Federal Debt” … THAT is the source of the “deficit”. America has untold trillions of dollars in unfunded liabilities … yet we continue to borrow and borrow and borrow … and the corporates keep on stuffing their pockets with the fruits of the labor of WE, the People.
“Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain” – Napoleon Bonaparte, 1815 (whose empirical wars were financed in part by America’s “Louisiana Purchase” – go figure).
:my signature motto:
Any politician – even down to the “select” man /person level – who will not participate in the education about and pursuit of Monetary Reform – is not worth the paper their election ballot is printed on … because THIS is an issue that underlies nearly everything else in our world …
… while the politicians and the (corporate) media keep the populace diverted elsewhere …
…WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO MAKE THESE TOWERS AND BLADES HERE IN THE US INSTEAD OF IMPORTING THEM FROM DENMARK, CHINA OR BRAZIL ?…
Blue Hill had imposed a moratorium against wind turbines in 2010. What happened between then and the spring of 2011 to change their wise decision. All towns must move quickly to adopt and retain moratoriums on wind turbines.