Massachusetts Setbacks Killed Onshore Wind Turbine Projects

The Town of Falmouth, Massachusetts between 2010 and 2012 constructed two Vestas V-82 type 1.65 Megawatt wind turbines each generating 110 decibels each as loud as a rock and roll band playing 24/7. The Massachusetts courts shut down the turbines in June of 2017 as they are a nuisance.

The Wall Street Journal in February 2019 published a severely critical editorial on the experiment of Falmouth, Massachusetts, which spent $12 million on wind turbines, and it’s been a disaster taking health and property rights with no compensation.

Massachusetts officials ignored low-frequency studies done by the United States Department of Energy in the 1980s in Boone, North Carolina at a 2-Megawatt wind turbine.

Massachusetts officials also ignored the Vestas Confidential Health and safety Instruction manual for a Falmouth Massachusetts wind farm. Page 10 of this manual addresses the situation of a free-spinning "runaway turbine". In that manual, instructions are for no one to be allowed within a 1640 feet (500 m) radius.

Massachusetts semi quasi renewable energy laboratories reclassified the 1980s low-frequency infrasound studies as a "human annoyance." Massachusetts officials still ten years later have never divulged to the public each Falmouth wind turbine generates 110 decibels and 113 decibels with both turbines operating at the same time.

The Cape Cod Commission in Massachusetts several years ago adopted 10 X, ten times, the width of the wind turbines blades to residential homes after massive noise complaints from at least twenty-one communities. That would equal around 3000 feet for one Falmouth wind turbine.

Acousticians put the distance to meet 40 dBA for Falmouth Wind II, a Vestas V82 with a sound power level of 110 dBA, which is approximately 891 meters or 2923 feet.

The Falmouth wind turbines were installed with no permits and according to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 fund agreement, a Special Permit should have been filed to use the 5 million dollar loan.

Outside legal counsel has advised the Town of Falmouth that Wind II is subject to specific provisions of ARRA and applicable federal regulations and guidelines ("Federal Law') in addition to the terms and conditions of the Project Regulatory Agreement ("PRA") and the Loan Agreement associated with the funding of Wind II.

Under Federal Law and the PRA and Loan Agreement, the Town must maintain Wind II as an "energy efficiency" project, as described in EPA guidelines dated March 2, 2009, in order to benefit from the financial subsidy provided by the Trust under ARRA and the Trust's Clean Water State Revolving Fund program.

The 5 million dollar loan was brokered by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Funds Used To Take Health & Property Rights