| Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005. |
Scituate wind turbine hits $1 million in revenue
In the years since it was installed, residents have complained to the board of health that noise and flicker from the 400-foot turbine was responsible for headaches, dizziness, nausea and sleep deprivation.
Credit: By Mary Whitfill | The Patriot Ledger | Mar 9, 2017 | www.wickedlocal.com ~~
SCITUATE – In the five years since the wind turbine on the Driftway went online, Scituate has made $1 million through its partnership with Scituate Wind LLC, the town announced Thursday.
As of the end of 2016, the town had collected over $1,000,000 in energy credits from National Grid. Gordon Deane, manager for Scituate Wind, said the turbine has continuously produced more money for Scituate each year than the year before.
“It goes straight to the town’s bottom line,” he said. “Our production has been improving every year. We’ve been spending more time and efforts on operations and on upgrading the software for the turbine.”
The town pays Scituate Wind for the electricity produced, and in turn receives metering credits from National Grid. The renewable-energy certificates associated with the turbine project are sold to the Massachusetts Energy Consumers Alliance, and the energy is then used locally.
As a result of the turbine and the energy produced from a large solar array on a closed landfill, Scituate was the first community in the state to power all of its town operations with renewable energy.
“We’ve really been a leader in the Commonwealth,” said Town Administrator Patricia Vinchesi.
Vinchesi said the revenue has been used to subsidize part of the debt for the new middle school and public-safety complex.
In the years since it was installed, residents have complained to the board of health that noise and flicker from the 400-foot turbine was responsible for headaches, dizziness, nausea and sleep deprivation.
In attempts to fix these problems, the town ran a pilot program last summer where it shut off the turbine between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. when the wind is coming from the southwest at speeds below 10 mph. During the pilot, complaints from residents were down about 65 percent and the town has continued the program since.
“There were some residents who had concerns so we did extensive noise studies and found there was one particular wind direction and speed that seemed to be different,” Vinchesi said. “It seems to have worked out very well.”
This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.
The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.
| Wind Watch relies entirely on User Contributions |
 (via Stripe) |
 (via Paypal) |
Share:
[ Short URL: https://wind-watch.org/news/?p=81921 ]
