​Falmouth Wind Turbines Fate Remains In Limbo

On November 13, 2019, Falmouth Town Meeting voted to transfer $2.5 million in free cash to remove both of Falmouth’s two Vestas V-82 type 1.65-megawatt, wind turbines from the wastewater treatment plant site on Blacksmith Shop Road.

Multiple Massachusetts courts ruled the turbines are a nuisance and both town-owned turbines lack a town special permit 240-166 shutting them down in June of 2017.

Over 5 million in specially designated stimulus funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 were used in the construction of the second wind turbine despite multiple warnings including studies, emails, letters, and complaints from the first wind turbine.

Each wind turbine generates 110 decibels of noise each which is equal on the decibel scale of a hard rock band playing 24/7. The Town of Falmouth had the warnings prior to construction.

The Falmouth Select Board through the Town Manager is working with an engineering firm to manage the disposition of both municipal wind turbines.

The long term strategy appears to explore a public and private partnership and or explore and implement a new site for the turbines in or out of town. The exploration started in June of 2017 in which case everyone except the taxpayers are making money.

The most recent prediction is spending will continue up until the end of the Massachusetts state fiscal year which ends June 2021.

The Falmouth wind turbines were designed in the mid-1990s in which case the wind industry admits, many problems with gearboxes. They couldn't be sold at auction in 2008 as no one wanted gear driven turbines 12 years ago.

Older gearboxes in wind turbines have a fixed ratio, typically around 1:100, and it changes the low speed of the rotor shaft to the high speed of the generator shaft. It's a complicated piece of equipment if one part goes bad they all do. Gear oil leaks are suspected in many wind turbine fires.

The radical solution, if you have a problem with a component, is to just not have that component. Today all new wind turbines are direct drive turbines with no gearbox.

In 2020 it is cheaper to buy and install a larger brand new direct-drive turbine than move an antiquated turbine no one wants. It's like spending thousands on a 15-year-old car who would do that?

Most older Americans remember the Yugo it was a small car made in the former nation of Yugoslavia that survives in the American consciousness as the ultimate automotive failure just like the gear-driven wind turbines.

The Falmouth Select Board members will always be remembered as the politicians who tried to move the old gear-driven turbines to a new location or the politicians who sold the last Yugo on the lot.

What happened to all the Yugo sales people?