Wind Power News: Pennsylvania
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They are the products of the organizations or individuals noted and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch.
Wind plans move ahead
SOMERSET — A western Pennsylvania wind farm developer will start construction before the end of the year on what will be the single largest wind farm in Cambria and Somerset counties and possibly the state. EverPower Wind Holdings Inc., with offices in Pittsburgh, has signed a deal with a German wind turbine company for construction of 68 units to be used in the Twin Ridges Wind Farm located in four Somerset County municipalities. REpower Systems has had a long-running relationship . . .
Wind farm opposition group hopes to educate public
KEYSER, W.Va. — Although members don’t oppose a specific wind farm, Allegheny Highlands Alliance is one of the groups that opposes wind farms in general, according to member Wayne Spiggle of Short Gap. The group is a consortium of citizen/environment organizations from five states, and one of its goals is to inform the public about the science and the truth of wind farms. Wind energy is too costly for the taxpayer; too inefficient to keep its promises to generate electricity . . .
Gamesa sells Blair County wind farm
Gamesa has entered into an agreement to sell its Chestnut Flats Wind Farm in Blair County to enXco, a company that operates and maintains wind farms throughout North America. The 38-megawatt wind farm in Logan Township features 19 Gamesa turbines that each can generate two megawatts of electricity, said Gamesa, the Spanish wind energy company that has its U.S. headquarters in Middletown and a manufacturing facility in Falls. “With the sale of the Chestnut Flats project to enXco, Gamesa continues . . .
ESU professor says fungus that closed park caves killing thousands of bats
Along with that massive death count, Whidden pointed out that “hundreds of thousands of bats die in wind turbines,” a problem first noticed in 2004. A large number of dead bats was found as close as the Waymart Wind Farm in Wayne County.
Some are beheaded or shorn in half by the blades. Whidden said but he added it has been found, oddly, that many die because their lungs or heart burst from very low air pressure they encounter while flying near the blades.
North Municipal News
In other business, supervisors voted to try to sell unused traffic signal poles and the township’s wind turbine.
“Good luck,” said Supervisor Phil Henry.
Supervisors previously tried unsuccessfully to sell the turbine.
Go after wind turbines for taxes
Shade school district is in dire need of revenue. Last week its attempt to increase assessments on properties with coal in the ground was shot down. Might I suggest that the taxpayers of Shade Township would be better served if the district spent it’s money lobbying Harrisburg to change the law that exempts wind turbines from paying school tax. That’s right – under current law passed by the Rendell administration, wind turbines, which are the most expensive real property in . . .
Big Wind requires big research
I am writing in response to your editorial “Let’s all learn more about wind farms” (Erie Times-News, Oct. 19). First, they are not wind “farms” but huge 50-story high industrial wind turbines with reinforced concrete bases from 30 to 50 feet deep holding them up. However, they do resemble the corporate agribusiness in the subsidies given and the fertilizer spread around. But, for now, I just want to provide some informational sources that the public can access to counter the . . .
U.S. bureau may face suit in defense of Indiana bats
A coalition of conservation groups is threatening to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for issuing an opinion allowing a proposed wind turbine facility on ecologically sensitive Shaffer Mountain to mitigate damage it would do to a maternity colony of endangered Indiana bats. According to the 21-page notice, sent to the Fish and Wildlife Service Thursday, the service’s biological opinion “inappropriately sidesteps” the preferred option of relocating or significantly modifying the 30-turbine industrial wind farm to avoid killing the . . .
Renewable energy outlook dims
Like the dot-com boom in the late 1990s, a bubble could burst on companies in the renewable energy sector, according to industry observers and insiders. Companies selling solar- and wind-energy products and services to generate and distribute power in Pennsylvania are facing a host of challenges, these experts say. “It’s going to be a difficult few years,” said Richard Rothhaar, director of business development for Conservation Consultants Inc., a South Side nonprofit that promotes the responsible use of energy. Renewable . . .
Subsidies can delay progress
Government subsidies for “green” technology may slow its development, a Carnegie Mellon University expert has pointed out. That is just one more reason for taxpayers to object to sending billions of their dollars to the solar, wind power and other “alternative” energy industries. “Green” advocates are upset the state of Pennsylvania is phasing out subsidies for home and business owners who install solar energy equipment. Since 2008, the program has handed out about $100 million. But M. Granger Morgan, head . . .
