MassCEC Aware Bogus Noise Documentation Falmouth Turbines

Concerned Citizens of Massachusetts who value intellectual honesty should not quietly be fleeced by such mendacity from their government officials.

The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative today known as the Massachusetts Clean Energy was the original owner of the embarrassing Vestas V-82 commercial 1.65 megawatt wind turbines that couldn’t even be sold at public auction.

The MTC had to bribe the Town of Falmouth with one million dollars to take the turbine that was too loud off theirs hands

There are far too many “mistakes” and “omissions” in the sale of the Vestas V-82 wind turbine with a maximum output of 110 decibels of noise. It appears state and local officials have always known the Vestas turbines were too loud to be placed in residential locations.

The news media has had this information for years. An editor for one newspaper went on to retire and go to work as consultant for the New Bedford Wind Energy Center.

The state at the time was following the agenda of former Governor Patrick of 2000 megawatts of wind power by the year 2020. This would equate to about 2500 commercial wind turbines statewide.

Gov. Deval Patrick, used a code name for his state email address: Sally Reynolds. Many say the governor’s email was sally.reynolds@state.ma.us to avoid Freedom of Information Requests about emails to wind turbine contractors.

In order to get the wind turbine agenda off the ground the wind study for Falmouth had the warnings of “regulatory noise” measured in decibels and “human annoyance” measured in infra sound had to be deleted from any and all Falmouth preliminary wind studies. They just omitted the warnings to the public. The agenda took precedence over health and public safety.

Falmouth is ground zero for poorly placed wind turbines in the United States

Next came the Falmouth Wind 1 feasibility study where acoustic noise “mistakes” were made in the original study. The MassCEC admitted 4 years later in 2013 they made “ mistakes.”

“study did not include a detailed acoustic analysis based upon sampling of ambient acoustic conditions “

DELEGATION OF AUTHORITY RELATING TO FALMOUTH REC AGREEMENTStaff Memorandum for April 2, 2013 Meeting of
MassCEC Board of Directors
Under
Risks/Due Diligence:
a.

“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.”

truncated click link to read entire April 2, 2013 memo below

https://plus.google.com/110428618913389869063/posts/By9RF1zwkN7

The final nail in the coffin is the hidden 2010 Vestas warning letter that the turbines being sold to Falmouth had a high output of 110 decibels of noise.

Noise studies done for the Town of Falmouth had studies done using a smaller General Electric wind turbine with a high output of 103.5 decibels of noise.

The puiblic has never been told to this day that the Vestas turbines are twice as loud as the General Electric wind turbines used in the Falmouth models.

Quote from the Vestas warning :
The Vestas letter warning to the town in 2010 :

‘The Town has previously been provided with the Octave Band Data / Sound performance for the V82 turbine. This shows that the turbine normally operates at 103.2dB but the manufacturer has also stated that it may produce up to 110dB ‘

August 3, 2010
Mr. Gerald Potamis
WasteWater Superintendent
Town of Falmouth Public Works
59 Town Hall Square
Falmouth, MA 02540

RE: Falmouth WWTF Wind Energy Facility II “Wind II”, Falmouth, MA
Contract No. #3297

Dear Mr. Potamis,

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 V82 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. These measurements are based on IEC standards for sound measurement which is calculated at a height of 10m above of the base of the turbine.
Click on link to download file

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