Welcome to the Renewable Energy Future: A Lesson From Germany
Germany's power grid is in trouble, and federal regulators are warning something must be done before the onset of winter's usual skyrocketing energy demands. They say the current grid is unable to support the forced transition from nuclear to government-mandated "renewable" energies and must be expanded quickly to avoid blackouts. "The situation of the power grid in the Winter 2011/12 was very]]>
Keep wind turbines out of Great Lakes
This letter is in response to Larry Beahan’s Another Voice. It is certain we need an alternative to burning fossil fuels, but while the Sierra Club is against fracking and polluting our freshwater, it also needs to be aware that the New York Power Authority plan includes building wind turbines in the Great Lakes, specifically Lake Erie. This will not only disturb the 40-year-old cap over the lake]]>
Wind Energy: The Next Green Black-Hole
The wind energy industry has been having a hard time. The taxpayer funding that has kept it alive for the last twenty years is coming to an end, and those promoting the industry are panicking. Perhaps this current wave started when one of wind energy’s most noted supporters, T. Boone Pickens, “Mr. Wind,” in an April 12 interview on MSNBC said, “I’m in the wind business…I lost my ass in the]]>
Neighbours sue farmers for offering land to wind turbine development
Sylvia and John Wiggins put their 48-acre horse farm near Stayner up for sale last summer for $1.25 million.Then a wind developer sent out notices of its plans to put up big wind turbines on a neighbouring farm.“Prior to that time, we had a lot of action,” Wiggins said Wednesday. “But from that moment on, none.”Sylvia Wiggins, the owner of the family property, is now suing not only the wind]]>
Perry White’s column regarding efforts by Upstate New York Power Corporation to sell wind-generated power to Fort Drum was revealing. He reveals the pitfalls of selling energy from an intermittent energy source to a local consumer, the abandonment of underwater transmission from Galloo Island and an antiquated electrical grid, thus exposing the increasingly tenuous nature of the wind industry as]]>
The debate surrounding the Production Tax Credit (PTC) intensified last quarter following several high-profile attempts by Congress to extend the credit before it expires at year-end. Industry warnings of precipitous declines in clean-tech investment and imminent job losses have reached a fevered pitch. The New York Times, for example, reflexively accused budget-hawks in Congress of being]]>
The town of Prattsburgh and wind developer Ecogen may be headed back to state Supreme Court Justice John Ark’s courtroom.Town board members voted 3-2 Monday to respond to Ecogen’s latest legal action – a stay -- which could force another hearing by Ark on a three-year old dispute between the town and the developer.One of the issues is a 168-day window Ark left open for Ecogen to show it had “]]>
NextEra Energy, the company that’s planning a $200 million wind farm project across Schuyler and Chemung counties, has reached a deal with a high-profile landowner – Watkins Glen International.NextEra – one of the largest power providers in the country – plans to locate multiple wind turbines, 400 feet tall, on the 1,832 acres that surround the historic race track in Schuyler County, officials]]>
NextEra Energy, the company that’s planning a $200 million wind farm project across Schuyler and Chemung counties, has reached a deal with a high-profile landowner – Watkins Glen International.NextEra – one of the largest power providers in the country – plans to locate multiple wind turbines, 400 feet tall, on the 1,832 acres that surround the historic race track in Schuyler County, officials]]>
Green Fascism: Death by Wind Turbine]]>
The radical environmentalists who push Al Gore-Style alarmism over climate change keep claiming that so-called "alternative energy" is wonderful for the world. They leave out all the negative environmental and aesthetic effects of giant wind and solar farms. It's turning out wind isn't so wonderful after all. The first wind farms turned out to be vast killing fields for migratory birds. And the]]>
Large windfarms can increase local night time temperatures by fanning warmer air onto the ground, new research has revealed. The study used satellite data to show that the building of huge windfarms in west Texas over the last decade has warmed the nights by up to 0.72C."Wind power is going to be a part of the solution to the climate change, air pollution and energy security problem," said Liming]]>
THE residents of Foula, Scotland’s most remote inhabited island which achieved a remarkable first by becoming 100 per cent self-sufficient with renewable energy, are now forced to endure black-outs.An all-night black-out has had to be brought into force for the 22 homes on the isolated Shetland community, because of teething problems in the island’s £1.5 million hydro and solar power schemes.]]>
For decades they have been touted by green warriors and global warming believers as the lynch pin of their brave new utopian future. Now it seems that something is truly rotten in the state of Denmark, or the great state of Texas in this case. After years of searching, it appears that scientists have finally identified an actual cause of climate change… wind farms....]]>
Iberdrola, the Spanish industrial wind developers targeting the towns of Hammond and Clayton, NY with their crappy white towers of testosterone are apparently having a hissy fit over certain regulations that are being imposed by the New York State Article X legislation that takes decisions on major energy facility sitings away from local citizens and puts them into the hands of a state siting]]>
With a new project manager at its helm, BP Wind Energy is tweaking the layout of the proposed Cape Vincent Wind Farm to show that it is “willing to compromise” with critics who seek to kill the project.Peter A. Gross said Wednesday he is leaving BP to “pursue an opportunity at another company” but that the wind farm project will move ahead with Richard F....]]>
The Maine Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC) has denied a permit application submitted by First Wind subsidiary Champlain Wind LLC for the Bowers Wind Project, a 69.1 MW wind energy development planned for Maine's Penobscot and Washington counties.As currently proposed, the project would consist of 27 Siemens wind turbines with maximum height of 428 feet; new access and crane path roads; 34.5]]>
Taxpayers in Minnesota ended up paying $70 million more than they needed to for electricity in 2011 because of “green” energy mandates, according to the Minnesota Rural Electric Association (MREA). “Taxpayers already pay a high price to subsidize wind energy through billions in federal grants, loan guarantees and tax credits that prop up the ‘windustry,’” Tom Steward writes for the Minnesota]]>
Just one week after a summit meeting among New York's leading energy luminaries about Gov. Andrew Cuomo's energy highway proposal, the state has issued a Request for Information (RFI), seeking ideas for potential projects from private developers, investor-owned utilities, the financial community, and others able and willing to construct a robust transmission infrastructure.A conference for]]>
I was literally blown away by The News editorial “Harness the wind.” Accepting wind energy’s inefficiencies and unreliability, yet endorsing it, makes no sense. Wind is not a good deal for pursuing alternative energy.As a leading opponent to industrial wind turbines in Lake Erie, the issues were not that they were going to be sited too close to shore or an obstruction to fishermen....]]>
State regulators on Tuesday approved a multi-million-dollar deal that could fund construction of hundreds of wind turbines in Maine and the Northeast, despite a staff recommendation to reject the proposal.All three members of the Public Utilities Commission voted for a complex series of transactions among First Wind, Bangor Hydro and Maine Public Service and their parent, Nova Scotia-based Emera,]]>
Regulators have blocked First Wind's efforts to pull its application for a 27-turbine wind farm on Bowers Mountain near Lincoln. The Massachusetts-based developer asked to withdraw the application last November when it seemed regulators would deny its permit. The Land Use Regulation Commission on Friday voted not to allow First Wind to pull its application for the wind farm on the]]>
April 6, 2012Lincoln, MaineThe Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC) voted today not to allow First Wind Holdings, LLC of Boston to withdraw its application for the Bowers Mountain Wind Project. The project would have erected 27 forty-three story tall turbines on prominent ridgelines in Carroll and Kossuth, adjacent to the headwaters of the Downeast Lakes....]]>
The state’s largest wind developer could face defeat for the first time in Maine with LURC’s decision Friday to deny a request to withdraw a proposed wind project on Bowers Mountain. The Land Use Regulation Commission voted 5-0 at the Waterfront Event Center to reject First Wind subsidiary Champlain Wind’s request to withdraw its proposal to build a 27-turbine wind farm in a rural, sparsely]]>
Today marks the “International Protest Day Against Wind Power” with 765 websites participating. A dark side of the wind industry that many media outlets have failed to report on is the thousands of documented cases of serious accidents. These include numerous documented cases of turbines falling over, blades flying off, injuries to workers and the public, and at least 99 reported fatality...]]>
New York State has reached a deal with the Obama administration that will speed up the development of off-shore wind projects on the Great Lakes.Friday, the Department of Energy announced a Memorandum of Understanding with New York and four other states that would basically streamline the regulatory reviews of any proposed off-shore proposals.Last year, New York State passed the Article X law,]]>
The Obama administration and five states have reached an agreement to speed up approval of offshore wind farms in the Great Lakes, which have been delayed by cost concerns and public opposition.Under the deal, which administration officials disclosed to The Associated Press ahead of an announcement scheduled for Friday, state and federal agencies will craft a blueprint for speeding regulatory]]>
Tom Rivers’ recent report on the costs associated with installing home-use-size wind turbines was quite enlightening (“Partridge adds third Batavia windmill,” story, March 13)As cited in the article, “State and federal incentives are covering almost the entire $75,000 cost for the new windmill.” It was also reported that “grants” paid half of the cost for the first two ($55,000 each)....]]>
Prattsburgh, NY — The Prattsburgh Town Board on Tuesday counter appealed an attempt by a wind farm developer to overturn an order signed by a state Supreme Court justice.Ecogen officials did not give a reason for appealing the order, which they originally submitted.The order – approved by Justice John Ark in February – included a road use agreement written by Ecogen....]]>
Hartford, Conn.-based United Technologies Corp. (UTC) announced on March 15 that it was selling off Carpinteria, Calif.-based wind turbine manufacturer Clipper Windpower as part of a strategy to acquire Goodrich Corp., a supplier of systems and services to the aerospace and defense industries.To help fund the Goodrich acquisition, UTC is also divesting its Pratt & Whitney, Rocketdyne, Milton Roy,]]>