Falmouth Wind Turbines Smoking Guns

Falmouth Wind Turbines Smoking Guns

Massachusetts -

It appears all those invloved in the installation of Falmouth wind turbine # 1 knew well in advance prior to the installation the Vestas V-82 commercial 1.65 megawatt wind turbine was too loud for an installation in Falmouth.

Falmouth Wind 1 would never have been installed using the wind turbine special permit 240-166. The requirements of the special permit process would have required additional studies and notifications to the neighbors.

General Electric refused to build a smaller turbine in Falmouth because of setbacks. The Falmouth Wind 1 turbine installed a Vestas turbine is twice as loud as the GE turbine. The politicians, news media and all the attorneys are aware of the noise fiasco.

Falmouth Town Meeting Members are voting to pour up to $300,000.00 every six months to feed the litigation costs.

Town Meeting Members were told in 2010 the legal expenses were a slam dunk.

The legal expenses could very well exceed the purchase price of Falmouth Wind 1 in short order.

AAAAA: Smoking Gun Email :

Fri 5/28/2010 1:48 PM Brian Hopkins brhop@vestas.com

RE: Sound / Feasibility Studies

TO: Wiehe, Stephen, cc Duijvesteijn, Olle; Yanuskiewicz, Francis

“Steve, I don’t believe I saw a feasibility study for Falmouth other than Site Plans. Was a sound study updated with the additional turbine? Does the information I provided in the octave band data support the conclusions that you are conservatvely within MA state sound regulations? The table highlights the fact that V82 produces greater decibels when it reaches its stall regime beyond the IEC design standard at 95% capacity. The table also helps recognize the effects of shear on the sound levels experienced at receptors which should also be considering with the sound study. My email was lost from the time we did the first turbine so I don’t have a great record of information but do you have this decibel mapping for Falmouth?”

Question from Vestas: “Do you have this decibel mapping for Falmouth?”

The Answer: There appears to have been no answer to this Vestas email by either the Town or W&S (based on documents requested through discovery, and what has and has not been provided).

There never was any decibel mapping for the second turbine, or for both turbines operating together, as of the date of the Potamis letter accepting responsibility.

The concern of Vestas(accurate acoustical mapping) was apparently ignored.

BBBBBBB: Smoking gun hidden letter 2010 Vestas noise warning :

The concern of the turbine supplier is easy to appreciate by reading the 2010 hidden Lumusletter, which reads in part:

“Due to the sound concerns regarding the first wind turbine installed at the wastewater treatment facility, the manufacturer of the turbines, Vestas, is keen for the Town of Falmouth to understand the possible noise and other risks associated with the installation of the second wind turbine. The Town has previously been provided with the Octave Band Data/Sound performance for the V-82 turbine. This shows that the turbine normally operates at 103.2dB. But the manufacturer has also stated that it may produce up to 110dB under certain circumstances.”

http://www.windaction.org/posts/41357-vestas-raises-concerns-about-turbine-noise-letter#.Ve9oyhFVikp

CCCCCCC: Smoking gun hidden April 2, 2013 memo from Massachusetts Clean Energy Staff to MassCEC Board of directors. The Falmouth Wind 1 turbne noise tests done prior to the installation are no good :

“Falmouth Wind 1 was one of the earliest municipally-owned megawatt scale wind turbines installed in Massachusetts.

Even though 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 (as is our current, more rigorous practice) which might have identified a potential exceedance of the 10 decibel limit,”

the memo reads. “The Falmouth wind turbines are of an older design which does not offer ‘low noise operations’ or other retrofit options.”

https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/04/03/details-on-masscecs-april-2-memo-on-falmouth-turbines/

DDDDDD: Smoking gun federal waiver Wind turbine ll: In order to finance Wind turbine # 2 the Town of Falmouth filed as federal EPA waiver to get a 6 million federal stimulus loan -the waiver requirements called for Special Permit 240-166. The owner never filed a Special Permit 240-166 to get the loan

Page 22130
Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 80 / Tuesday, April 27, 2010 / Notices

half way down column # 1

“Based on information provided to the EPA, --------- the Town of Falmouth has taken the necessary steps to obtain all required local, state, and federal approvals to move forward with the proposed project. The Town of Falmouth has adopted a local ordinance regulating large scale wind turbines. According to the submittal, Zoning Article XXXIV, Chapter 240, Section 240–166 requires a Special Permit for windmills with minimum setback from property lines.”

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2010-04-27/pdf/2010-9751.pdf