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Wind Power News: November 2009
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch in its noncommercial educational effort to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch. They are the products of and owned by the organizations or individuals noted and are shared here according to “fair use” and “fair dealing” provisions of copyright law.
Gone with the wind: Carbon millionaires arrested for fraud
Italian Wind Fraud Investigation Extends to the Netherlands, UK, Ireland, and Spain. Subsidies Questioned. For some carbon millionaires, lining their pockets legally through taxpayer subsidies and hand outs is not enough. They choose to cheat even though they’re playing a game that’s already rigged. The Financial Times reports that: Oreste Vigorito, head of the IVPC energy company and president of Italy’s National Association of Wind Energy, was arrested on Tuesday in Naples. Vito Nicastri, a Sicilian business associate, was arrested . . . Complete story »
Wind farm plan irks activists; Towers would be built in remote McCain Valley
A remote corner of East County is shaping up as a battleground between companies pushing wind farms as clean and cheap power generators and activists who view them as a blight on the landscape. It has put environmentalists in the position of opposing renewable energy because, they say, it’s in the wrong place. Drawing the most attention is a plan by the Spanish conglomerate Iberdrola to build about 100 skyscraper-sized towers in and near the McCain Valley, a federal conservation . . . Complete story »
Wind farm takes a toll
The road to a cleaner, greener energy future is fraught with strife on Wolfe Island. The disruption and dust caused by the construction of 86 massive windmills has forced at least one couple to pack up and leave their island home of 17 years. Dawn and Dean Wallace lived on the road travelled regularly all summer by the huge dump trucks and tractor-trailers carrying equipment and construction material to the west end of the island where most of the windmills . . . Complete story »
Group takes stand against wind power
AUGUSTA, Maine – While government, private and educational entities work in earnest to bring large-scale wind turbines to Maine, a newly formed group of concerned residents says the promises being made to Maine people are too good to be true. Wind turbines can be as loud as an airliner, as ugly as an oil derrick and as damaging to the environment as a clear-cut, according to members of the Citizens Task Force on Wind Power. They also emit a jaw-rattling hum . . . Complete story »
State presses wind projects; Bill aims to ease gridlock around appeals process
With more than a third of the major wind-energy projects in Massachusetts stalled by lawsuits or permit appeals, the Patrick administration has proposed a landmark bill that would streamline the state’s appeals process and make it possible to win approval of such projects much more quickly. Massachusetts now generates less than 1 percent of the nation’s wind energy, about 9 megawatts, enough to power only about 2,700 homes. Without a change in the permitting process, administration officials say, the state . . . Complete story »
Town Councilor regrets High Sheldon Wind Farm
[The following letter was written in response to a letter by a Cape Vincent landowner trying to sell his town on industrial wind turbines.] I read your article on a proposed wind farm and your reference to Sheldon, NY. I am a Town Board Member in Sheldon and have participated in the process for the last four years. Yes, our wind project is up and running. Yes, it does pay the town tax. However, it does not pay the fire . . . Complete story »
Laramie Range fund will compete with wind for leases
The Northern Laramie Range Alliance announced it will establish a tax-exempt corporation to buy up state leases in order to prevent the development of wind energy. The effort is aimed at “preserving the agricultural, historic, recreational and natural heritage of central Wyoming’s Northern Laramie Range,” according to the alliance. Bret Frye, Kenneth Lay, Sharon Rodeman and Diemer True, members of the alliance’s steering committee, will serve as directors of the new corporation. Asked whether the fund would also be used . . . Complete story »
Confession of a former wind turbine supporter
They say that confession is good for the soul, so here is my confession: A few years ago I thought like so many other people in this country, in particular in this town of Orangeville, that wind must be good, after all it’s free. I even went so far as to have a “green energy” sign on my lawn. Free works for me, but it didn’t take a lot of research to discover that like the lunch, nothing is free! . . . Complete story »
Mayoral candidates agree: More study needed on wind turbines
Mayoral candidates James Shanley and Donna Holaday were open and honest when asked during a debate last week if the city should allow for more wind turbines to go up in Newburyport. “We blew it; we really blew it as a city on this,” Holaday said. Saying city officials were “excited” at the chance to move forward and see alternative energy resources in the city when faced with the proposal by Mark Richey Woodworking, Holaday admitted they didn’t have the . . . Complete story »
Wind turbines in europe do nothing for emissions-reduction goals
Despite Europe’s boom in solar and wind energy, CO2 emissions haven’t been reduced by even a single gram. Now, even the Green Party is taking a new look at the issue – as shown in e-mails obtained by SPIEGEL ONLINE. Germany’s renewable energy companies are a tremendous success story. Roughly 15 percent of the country’s electricity comes from solar, wind or biomass facilities, almost 250,000 jobs have been created and the net worth of the business is €35 billion per year. . . . Complete story »
