Falmouth High Voltage Direct Current Converter Station

Offshore Wind wants to build a high-voltage direct current converter station in Falmouth.

On June 8, 2022, the Falmouth Select Board held a public meeting on a proposal submitted by Mayflower Wind (now SouthCoast Wind) to bring an underground electric transmission cable from offshore wind turbines to an HVDC substation in Falmouth.

Those present at the meeting were 90 percent against the project. The state needs to bypass Article 97 to install the project against the will of the citizens.

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, Speaker of the House Ron Mariano, and Senate President Karen Spilka are working hard to alter Article 97 of the Massachusetts Constitution to take local property rights from citizens to help offshore wind contractors. Article 97 establishes a right to a clean environment, including its natural, scenic, historical, and aesthetic qualities, for the citizens of the Commonwealth.

Offshore wind contractors have proposed placing sets of 800-megawatt cables buried under residential streets and publicly owned parks. To put that in perspective the output of the Pilgrim nuclear power plant was 680 megawatts. Offshore wind sends its power onshore as direct current, which must be changed to an alternating current for the grid.

There are proposals for High Voltage Direct Current Converter Stations with battery backups of over 400 megawatts. The HVDC Converter Station takes up around six acres. The power plants talking points are safe because of 30-foot noise walls, concrete containment walls, appropriate electromagnetic radiation setbacks from the public and only robots can work in the plant while it's working.

The simple fact is something as simple as a lightning strike can cause catastrophic damage. Once on fire, these plants and battery backs can not be put out and could take a week to burn out. If a town is dependent on the aquifer for drinking water there should be a stern warning to residents.
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Recently a battery storage site at Moss Landing, Monterey County, California burnt for a week and Oahu, Hawaii has had wind turbine battery backup fires. In September 2021 a High Voltage Direct Current Converter Station pictured caught on fire at Sellindge in Kent, England. HVDC power plants and cables are industrial and not for residential suburban communities.

The wind turbine cabling could be sent to Boston by submarine cable but politicians rush to reach an already failed 2025 renewable goal.

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center rushed testing the wind turbine blades made in Canada by LM Wind Company owned by General Electric. The blade did not fit in the test center. After only a few months, a blade flew off a Vineyard wind turbine. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) has determined that none of the 150 blades made in Canada can be used in the Vineyard Wind project.

Massachusetts state politicians consistently ignore public safety risks to reach a renewable energy goal. There are no Select Boards or Town Councils that would urge their town citizens to accept these industrial power stations.

The bottom line is that an in-depth evacuation plan should be developed if an HVDC power plant and battery backup plant are approved near residents.
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