Wind Power News: July 2011
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.
Disputed route to windfarm faces the axe
A plan to build a controversial access route through Shawforth to the Crook Hill wind farm could be scrapped. Planners at Rossendale Council had been expected to make a decision on whether to give the A671 access road, 2km east of Whitworth, the go-ahead at a meeting on Wednesday. But the decision has now been postponed while officers at Rochdale Council considers a new application to vary current planning conditions – which would cut loads and reduce the number of . . . Complete story »
Those Cape Cod Canal turbines make the Boston media; Opponents try to compare it to the Falmouth situation
FOX-25 in Boston is covering the New Generation Wind proposal to build wind turbines west of the Cape Cod Canal Scenic Highway on the Bourne side of the canal. The developer plans to sell the energy to the national grid when the project is approved by the Cape Cod Commission. There were seven turbines planned, but the project has been scaled back by more than half to only three to accommodate the neighbors, says the project’s spokesman Greg O’Brien of . . . Complete story »
Wind turbines’ threat to bats
I just read an excellent piece by Deb Markowitz, “You can help to save endangered bats.” Bravo to her for shining some light on this important issue. If you haven’t seen the article, you need to know, due to white nose syndrome Vermont has already lost over 500,000 of these beneficial little creatures who, among other things, eat up to half their body weight each night in insects. Wildlife experts are rightfully concerned and have listed the little brown bat . . . Complete story »
The Wind Equation: Green energy, cluttered horizon
Northeastern Pennsylvania’s Endless Mountains hold the promise of cheap, clean wind energy, but the need to protect the beauty of those rolling hills has some residents protesting the construction of a massive wind farm in Wyoming County. BP Wind Energy is finalizing permits and anticipates beginning construction this fall of a wind farm on a 9,000-acre site in Mehoopany, Noxen, Forkston and Eaton townships. Securing power purchase agreements with Old Dominion Electric Cooperative and Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative earlier this . . . Complete story »
Community wind: County agency asked to develop policy for projects where local ownership plays a major role
LEWISBURG – A local, tri-county development agency has been asked by the Appalachian Regional Commission to develop a policy that could be used regionwide for community wind projects. In the publication “Community Wind 101: A Primer for Policymakers,” author Patrick Mazza writes, “Community wind in its most essential definition is wind development in which local ownership plays a major role. It encompasses a broad range of formats, from private partnerships among rural landowners, to projects by consumer-owned utilities, schools and native . . . Complete story »
New rules not enough for wildlife advocates
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released revised wind power siting guidelines, but bird and bat advocates say they still lack the teeth to force developers to consider the long-term effects of turbines on wildlife. Staff at the American Bird Conservancy said the guidelines lead to “‘rubber-stamping’ of wind projects.” “Given the administration’s commitment to scientific integrity, it’s hard to understand why the peer-reviewed work of agency scientists was dismissed in favor of text written by an industry-dominated Federal Advisory . . . Complete story »
What next for Save Prospect? Grass roots group inherits the wind energy issue
PROSPECT – Fundraising. Catching up on personal lives. Drafting wind regulations. That’s what consumes Save Prospect Corp. now following the defeat two months ago of two large wind turbines proposed in town. In the afterglow, it has pushed ahead to develop a plan to pay off its debt and to work on local and state regulations. The group formed to oppose West Hartford-based BNE Energy Inc.’s proposal to erect two 1.6-megawatt wind turbines on a 67.5-acre site parcel at 178 New . . . Complete story »
Spinning forward
Six additional giant windmills will start sprouting from a brownfield along Lake Erie, possibly within the next few weeks, and they are expected to produce even more renewable energy from the toxic former Bethlehem Steel property by early 2012. The new turbines will join the eight windmills that dramatically altered vistas of the Lake Erie shoreline when they began operating in Lackawanna in 2007. Site preparation started last week for the new windmills, which will be identical to the other . . . Complete story »
Anti-turbine group hosts meeting for communities near future wind farms
An information meeting is blowing into a rural community northwest of Stratford after at least two farms signed leases with wind turbine companies. The public meeting, which runs Aug. 9, will address the effects of wind farms pegged for the Sebringville area. “The companies that put in the wind turbines tend not to give a lot of information to the public,” said Tom Melady, a member of West and East Perth Against Turbines, the group hosting the gathering. “We want . . . Complete story »
New wind guidelines anger bird, bat groups
Siting guidelines: Industry too influential in drafting, critics say. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released revised wind power siting guidelines, but bird and bat advocates say they still lack the teeth to force developers to consider the long-term effects of turbines on wildlife. Staff at the American Bird Conservancy said the guidelines lead to “‘rubber-stamping’ of wind projects.” “Given the administration’s commitment to scientific integrity, it’s hard to understand why the peer-reviewed work of agency scientists was dismissed in . . . Complete story »
