Falmouth Taxpayers Paying Twice For Wind Turbines

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) was created by the Green Jobs Act of 2008. In 2008 the MassCEC was dedicated to the success of wind turbine projects and creating jobs.

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center maintains a wind turbine contractor database.

Since 2010 the Town of Falmouth has hired attorneys and law firms that originally worked within each sector of the wind industry that supported contract negotiation and execution, financing and confidentiality agreements to install the wind turbines. In other words, the attorneys have a cash cow. They get paid to put them up and the town hires them again to defend the turbines. The same law firms and attorneys that installed the wind turbines get another bite out of the apple defending them at you the taxpayers' expense.

The taxpayers are paying twice.

In 2012 the Town of Falmouth Select Board agreed to the Falmouth Wind Turbine Option Analysis Process (WTOP) to engage in an open, transparent, and collaborative exploration of the range of options for the long-term future of the town's two wind turbines – Wind I and Wind II. The process costs according to the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center was $390,000.00. The town withheld documents from the WTOP process.

It is a well-known fact the town was not open and honest and withheld the 110-decibel noise warning letter from Vestas wind company. It has never been explained why the town withheld the noise warning letter or who advised town officials to withhold the letter. Had the town been open and honest in 2012 six years of litigation fees could have been avoided. The August 2010 Vestas letter was a reminder to town officials that before the installations of the wind turbines that the wind turbines were twice as loud as General Electric turbines and GE refused to place a single wind turbine because of residential setbacks and ice throw.

The Town of Falmouth is now considering again hiring a wind turbine consultant to review the wind turbine health and financial fiasco. This is after spending $390,000.00 in 2012 on consultants and meetings in which the town withheld a warning letter that showed on the year 2005 KEMA Inc map that noise levels on Blacksmith Shop Road and up to 200 residential homes decibel levels reach near 60 decibels.

The taxpayers are going to pay twice. Again?

Falmouth taxpayers have to understand how the town is making decisions. The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) who sold Falmouth Wind I to the town has managed to fulfill its agenda of creating jobs defending the wind turbines at your expense.

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center originally bought and paid 2.7 million dollars for Falmouth Wind I. They could not sell the older gear driven 110-decibel wind turbine at auction no one bid on it.The turbine was purchased with state funds which is your money. The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center gave the Town of Falmouth one million dollars of state money (your money) to take the wind turbine. The Falmouth taxpayers are paying the state back a loan on Falmouth Wind I & II .

The taxpayers are paying twice plus interest and the courts have shut down the wind turbines.

How much longer does it take to figure out your paying twice for everthing and getting nothing ?
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Massachusetts Clean Energy Center April 2, 2013 Wind Turbine Memo Excerpts

DELEGATION OF AUTHORITY RELATING TO FALMOUTH REC AGREEMENT
Staff Memorandum for April 2, 2013 Meeting of
MassCEC Board of Directors

“The original MTC-commissioned feasibility study for Falmouth over-estimated the likely acoustic impact, that study did not include a detailed acoustic analysis based upon sampling of ambient acoustic conditions”

MassCEC also engaged wind technology and acoustics experts and a financial analyst to support this process. MassCEC’s total funding contribution for this process was $390,000.
The WTOP group conducted its work between April and December 2012 and issued its report to the Board of Selectmen in January 2013. The WTOP report identified a number of options that were investigated but not adopted as recommendations for a variety of reasons. The report presented five potential mitigation options and provided estimates of the financial impact of each option. The options are:

1. Full Operation: allow unrestricted turbine operation; manage 10-decibel exceedances through property buy-outs and easements; no shadow flicker mitigation.
2. Curtailment to Financial Break-even: restrict nighttime operation just enough to ensure sufficient cash flow to cover costs and to avoid 10-decibel exceedances; curtail for shadow flicker.
3. Twelve-hour Curtailment: restrict operation to 7:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.; also curtail for shadow flicker.
4. Remove Turbines: dismantle and sell the turbines, most likely for their spare parts value.
5. Remove Turbines and Replace with PV Facility: Same as option four but also install an approximately 2 MW photovoltaic facility at the nearby landfill, with net revenues allocated to offsetting costs of wind turbine removal.

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Note #

MassDEP has conducted regulatory compliance testing of the Wind 1 turbine and concluded that the sound impact from the turbine does exceed state noise policy.

Note #
In June of 2017 the Massachusetts Superior Court agreed with the Falmouth Zoning Board the wind turbines are a nuisance and shut down both wind turbines.