Falmouth Cost & Feasibility Repowering Wind Turbine

Falmouth Town Meeting in November 2019 voted 2.5 million and more down the road to dismantle its wind turbines. The town has already spent 12 million on these turbines and an unknown amount of legal fees in as many as eleven courts cases over seven years and so many appeals most people have lost count.

Falmouth estimated costs for removing turbines, as determined by the consultant hired by the town in 2011, was $350,000 per turbine.

However, in November 2019 the 2.5 plus million turbine cost approved by Falmouth Town Meeting reflects a dismantling process designed to allow for the reuse of the turbine, Consultant Report at Sections 2 and 3, a process that is substantially more time consuming and expensive than a dismantling process in which the turbines are sold for scrap.

The $2.5 plus million figure cited reflects the cost to relocate and install and commission the turbines for use at an alternative site. Consultant Report at ES-1 and Table 3-1.

The costs include, among other things, construction of new foundations ($500,000 per turbine), electrical infrastructure improvements for the newly installed

turbines ($200,000 per turbine), wind turbine erection ($350,000 per turbine), testing and recommissioning of the turbines ($150,000 per turbine), permitting, planning and design associated with the re-use of the turbines ($200,000 per turbine),

See Town of Falmouth, Massachusetts Wind Energy Facility Mitigation Analysis, prepared by (Consultant), December 2011, on page 2-2.
Link http://www.falmouthmass.us/DocumentCenter/View/159/Weston-and-Sampson-PDF

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Note: The Town of Falmouth wind turbines both Vestas V-82 type 1.65 megawatt wind turbines were designed in the late 1990s by NegMicon. Each turbine generates 110 decibels of noise.

As a result of that noise the Massachusetts courts in June 2017 shut down the nuisance wind turbines as they were installed with no permits.

Wind turbine advocates predict the turbines will last 30 years but never include the maintenace cost to get to thirty years.

The Falmouth wind turbines engineered in the 1990s may have well been assembled prior to 2004 and kept in storage until erected in Falmouth in 2010 and 2012.

The 20-year design life is a heated topic of discussion as the older turbines need to be repowered long before the twenty year mark.

The older designed wind turbine gearboxes very rarely last twenty years and may need several replacements or major repairs over the years.

The wind turbine blades at some point need replacement in fact they are piling up at landfills across the country because they can't be recycled.

Falmouth voters should as the turbines age, structural failures should be anticipated. In the 20- to 25-year period, owners have to accept a higher level of failure risk by increased inspection and monitoring frequency as a cost-effective life extension method.

The bottom line:

It's cheaper to buy a brand new wind turbine.

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Controlled Demolition, Inc. (CDI) of Phoenix, Maryland, USA (acting as Explosives Subcontractor to Main Demolition Contractor, Keltbray Decommissioning of Glasgow, Scotland) performs the preparation for and explosives felling of one (1), 580’ tall, 1000 mt wind turbine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg9xk0d5qYY