Consider the cost
Bangor Daily News, bangordailynews.com 16 May 2011
Mount Waldo – is wind worth it?
While many important questions surround wind development, I think one is not being asked, especially in the case of Mount Waldo. Is it worth it?
I mean worth the resources; yes, it will cost a lot of money. But more important, is it worth forever altering the mountain?
Eolian likes to refer to Mount Waldo as “impacted,” and yes, there are three radio and cell towers there. But no one who has been on Mount Waldo would label it impacted. Except for a small one-lane access road, foot trails are the only pathways crisscrossing through the forest on the mountain.
Putting turbines on the mountain would greatly impact it. Just think about getting those things up there. Large roads would have to be built. This means clear-cutting and blasting, run-off and erosion.
So now Eolian is saying it would install four turbines (or maybe four; like most of their information it changes often). Knowing that these will generate power between 18 percent and 30 percent of the time (FERC statistic, you can look it up), is it worth it? Really?
Cynthia Sousa
Frankfort
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/05/16/consider-the-cost/