Falmouth Wind Turbine REC Settlement Tonight 1.6 Million

The Falmouth wind turbines built between 2010 and 2012 are about to make the third renewable energy contract change in ten years with the REC payments starting in 2015.

An exception for a REC agreement was made between 2007 and 2008. The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative now the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center under the now closed Community Wind Collaborative program and 2008 Green Communities Act authorized a reservation of $1.8 million for a REC purchase contract. The MTC today the MassCEC Board made an exception in 2008 and authorized a reservation for the closed REC purchases in the closed Community Wind Collaborative.

A REC or Renewable Electricity Certificate are tradable energy commodities in the United States that represent proof that 1 megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity was produced from a wind turbine. The renewable energy certificates are assigned a value in your agreement. The REC is used to in the Falmouth wind turbines used to pay back debt. For example in the original agreement a REC purchase price paid by MassCEC $40 each.

In 2010 as soon as the first wind turbine began to spin neighbors filed litigation against the two types of noise measured in decibels and human annoyance known as low-frequency infra-sound a sound that can be felt. The original noise study was done by KEMA Inc. That study designated by street 99 homes that could be affected by noise. There is no noise study done for the second Falmouth wind turbine or both turbines operating together.

The Town of Falmouth had been warned by email and had maps from the year 2005 showing the turbines would exceed 50 decibels of noise on Blacksmith Shop Road. In addition,the town has a letter from 2010 that shows the turbines installed generate up to 110 decibels. The 110-decibel letter has been released through FOIA, Freedom of Information Act, but has never been seen by the Falmouth public.

The legal expenses for both the neighbors of the wind turbines and the town became excessive. In 2014 the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center again for a second time made exceptions and/ or renegotiated the REC, renewable energy credit agreement, in an effort to help in part to pay the Town of Falmouth legal expenses against the neighbors of the wind turbines.

Prior to the new MassCEC REC agreement in 2014, the state agency admitted acoustic noise mistakes in the studies done prior to the installations of the Falmouth turbines. In addition, the MassCEC admitted the turbines had been installed Ad Hoc and changed its setback requirements to 2000 feet from residential property.

The residents around the wind turbines received no legal expense help from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center which put the state agency in the position of trying to outspend the neighbors in court to make them go away. The residential taxpayers are being shot with their own money paid in taxes.

The Massachusetts Superior Court in June of 2017 has agreed with the Falmouth Zoning Board that the wind turbines are a nuisance and shut them down,

In October of 2017, the Falmouth Select Board authorized Town Manager Julian Suso to renegotiate the REC agreement again as the turbines no longer spin.

The current payments look to be around 1.6 million at $110,000.00 per year for 15 years.The payments started in 2015.

Monday night February 12, 2018, the Falmouth Select Board will meet in executive session to review the REC settlement.

# Note, The two types of wind turbine noise have been known for 40 years.

Federal and state officials 40 years ago were well aware of noise tests done in Boone North Carolina completed in 1985 by the US Department of Energy and NASA by Scientist Neil Kelly.

Starting in 1975, NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, managed a program for the United States Department of Energy and the United States Department of Interior to develop utility-scale wind turbines for electric power, in response to the increase in oil prices.

The first United States wind turbine noise complaints were received from a dozen families within a two-mile radius of a turbine experiment in Boone, North Carolina during September of 1979.

Falmouth Executuve Session Meeting Link Tonight

http://www.falmouthmass.us/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_02122018-10231