Brodie turbines benefit others while we suffer
The Berkshire Eagle | July 18, 2018 | www.berkshireeagle.com
The Berkshire Eagle | July 18, 2018 | www.berkshireeagle.com
The Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative plans to install two new additional turbines on Brodie Mountain. To me this new wind project is an illustration of the extreme lack of understanding many people have of the wind industry and wind turbines themselves. For example, their electricity is unreliable and most available when least needed – in spring and fall. Adding more and bigger turbines callously disregards the complaints made by those in the vicinity of the first Brodie project.
We are told that the cooperative is an initiative of the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Co. with 14 municipal utilities who participated in the first phase of this project. The participants in the second project (the two new turbines) include the towns of Boylston, Chicopee, Hull, Marblehead, Peabody, Russell, Sterling, Wakefield and West Boylston. David Tuohey, spokesperson for the company, said that customers (of the company) “desire to be more involved in clean energy projects.” With the exception of Russell and Chicopee, all of these towns are within an hour’s drive of Boston. These people will not hear the turbines, see the environmental damage or view these massive industrial machines. They don’t seem to care about the impact that their “feel good” project will have on people in Western Massachusetts.
The last two paragraphs allude to very bad problems with wind turbines, the environmental destruction they cause and the noise they make. We are told that when the original turbines were installed “access roads (for two more) were built and pad sites cleared so the only work (for the two new ones) will involve transport and the erection of towers minimizing the impact on the Brody mountain ridge line.” I am unable to see the difference between damage done in the past and the same damage done in the future.
Feathered blades will be used to minimize noise. Where is the proof that they do so?
Trina Sears Sternstein,
Hawley
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2018/07/19/brodie-turbines-benefit-others-while-we-suffer/