The SJC rules Wind Farm in Western Mass can proceed
According to the Globe, the SJC has ruled that a state issued permit, of six years ago, to the developers of a Western Mass Wind Farm can be built. This 30-megawatt wind farm will be located in Florida and Monroe Mass and will power 10,000 homes. They hope to be completed by next year.
This decision by the SJC will have an impact on everyone in our state, including Framingham. The Legislature is considering a bill to stream line the permit process and will overrule petty lawsuits brought by those who stand in the way of wind energy.
Look for this to make the supposed Wind Turbine By-Law here in Framingham easier for home owners to have a small wind turbine on their property.
In another Mass town around Wareham, a private developer is making plans to build some land based utility grade wind turbines among the cranberry bogs.... with no opposition whats so ever.
There is hope wind energy in Mass and after 75 days of oil spilling into the Gulf, effecting 5 states and the life's work of thousands of people and dozens of industries, I say, put a 1000 turbines off our coast.
posted by Jim Pillsbury @ 3:27 PM
5 Comments
5 Comments:
Lets hope you are right and this helps us to get a decent wind turbine by law here in Framingham, but I still think you are going to have a fight on your hads with that one. Who will replace Tom O'Neal on the wind turbine committee?
I think wind energy is probably a good option, but I think it needs to be proven before we should be talking about putting 1000 of these things off the coast. Lets get this in perspective. We did not figure out all the issues involved in a problem on a deep water drilling rig. Lets not make the same mistake about potential issues from off shore wind turbines, or even wind turbines in our backyards. The proof is in the pudding, and I need more pudding before I am comfortable supporting putting these things everywhere.
I don't want some monolithic turbine spinning in my neighbors back yard until you can prove to me it isn't going to send a blade flying through the air an kill someone.
I read today that the cost of electricity from the Cape Wind project is more than 4 times the cost from existing sources. I am all for getting away from oil, but in this economy, I can not afford to pay the electric bill I have now let alone one that is double or triple what I currently pay. The best job I have been able to find in the last 16 months pays me $9 an hour, I use to make $75,000. I can not cut my expenses any more than I have already done, and we are just barely holding on. An increase of $100 a month in my electric bill would mean less food on the table at my house. Happy to support alternative energy if I can afford it and have a decent job. But if we don’t do something about the unemployment rate in this country, then as far as I am concerned the wind turbines are not a good option.
The proposed increase will be about 10 dollars a month which when thought about, could be the same if oil prices went up.
The utility grade turbines are better designed and have had years of testing in real world air. Perhaps a hurricane, tsunami or even a tanker could take out a sea based turbine, but none of us would be there anyway.
Coakley, who is against wind turbines of our coast is leading another charge to find out how much it will cost Cape Wind to operate the turbines. Time will tell how this plays out for Cape Wind.
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