Wind Power News: Puerto Rico
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.
Más presión por defender la agricultura
[More pressure to protect agriculture — Anxiety persists for the six detained for protesting construction of a wind energy facility on agricultural land in Santa Isabel.] El desasosiego que viven los seis detenidos por protestar contra la construcción de un parque eólico en suelo agrícola santaisabelino persiste. No obstante, al concluir ayer la segunda sesión de la Vista Judicial en Alzada, el abogado defensor Martín González Vázquez aseguró haber probado siete puntos ante Fiscalía y la jueza Gladys González Segarra. . . .
Ocurre masacre ambiental en Guayanilla
[Environmental massacre occurring in Guayanilla — About 20,000 trees have been felled in Punta Ventana y Verraco area of Guayanilla to make way for Windmar Renewable's wind energy facility. The action has occurred without intervention from the Department of Natural Resources or reporting from nation media. José Sáez Cintrón, spokesman for the Coalición Pro Bosque Seco, and Miguel Calas Mora, the biologist in charge of the nature reserve, confirmed that the damage caused by heavy equipment to the east of . . .
Cleaner energy sources prove divisive
As Puerto Rico seeks to lower soaring utility rates while simultaneously shifting toward cleaner energy sources, it faces grassroots opposition to two major projects even though at least one is 100-percent renewable. Objections to the projects – a natural gas pipeline and wind installation – revolve mostly around their locations, underlining the complex interests involved in actually implementing changes to the island’s power grid. The pipeline would start on the island’s south coast, head northwards through the central mountain range . . .
Wind farms are a problem for Puerto Rico
Mucho se ha hablado de las “bondades” de la generación de energía mediante turbinas eólicas o molinos de viento. Hemos visto cómo los funcionarios del gobierno, el Secretario del Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales, Javier Galán Kerkadó, y el Secretario del Departamento de Agricultura, Javier Rivera Aquino, defienden y promueven estos proyectos con total desconocimiento del tema. Basandose en la supuesta “Emergencia Energética” y la “Política Pública” del gobierno dirigida (supuestamente) a bajar el costo de la energía eléctrica. . . .
Planning Board OKs Santa Isabel wind farm project
The Puerto Rico Planning Board has signed off on the lease of some 10,000 acres of land in Santa Isabel where San Francisco-based Pattern Energy Group will build the island’s first wind farm, the agency announced Thursday. The approval comes more than a year after Pattern entered into a 20-year power purchase and operating agreement with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority for the sale of 75 megawatts produced at the future Aeolic energy project. “This action accelerates the construction . . .
Windmar: complicidad y crimen ambiental en Guayanilla
Los trabajos que esta realizando la empresa proponente del parque eólico en Guayanilla, Windmar Renewable Energy están provocando un desastre ambiental de grandes proporciones en Punta Ventana, Cerro Toro, Punta Verraco y el Bosque Seco. Es reprochable la aptitud asumida por el Secretario del DRNA Daniel Galán Kercadó ya que se ha hecho de la vista larga y no toma acción para detener este nefasto proyecto. Los daños causados por la maquinaria estan dejando una estela de desolación y destrucción . . .
Destrucción y crimen ambiental en Cerro Toro y Punta Verraco en Guayanilla, Puerto Rico
Guayanilla – La empresa Windmar, proponente para construir un parque eólico en Punta Ventana, Cerro Toro y Punta Verraco aledaños al Bosque Seco, esta realizando trabajos de construcción mediante los cuales esta causando graves daños al bosque y a las especies que alli habitan. Estan deforestando la zona, removiendo corteza terrestre, destruyendo yazimientos arqueológicos, fragmentando el bosque e impactando adversamente las lagunas. No podemos permitir que siguan destruyendo nuestro Patrimonio Natural. La zona del Karso del Sur esta bajo amenaza . . .
Environmentalists declare war on developers
Despite laws which make it a crime to demonstrate against such projects, the Ventanas Dry Forest Coalition will not let up in its attempt to stop the development of a coastal wind park here. Coalition spokesman Francisco Sáez Cintrón attacked the members of the Legislature who approved the new Permit Law, known as the Tito Kayak Law, which makes it a crime to obstruct and shut down works in progress. “This is an attempt against freedom of expression and we . . .
Wind farm opponents plan civil disobedience campaign
The local mayor and members of the Coalition for the Ventanas Verraco Dry Forest said Tuesday if the government continues with its plans to establish a wind farm on the coast of Guayanilla that they would have no other option but to begin a civil disobedience campaign. During a press conference, Guayanilla Mayor Edgardo Arlequín Vélez and about 30 environmental activists reaffirmed their opposition to the Windmar Project, which gained Planning Board approval last week. “We are not going to . . .
