The 130-turbine Cape Wind farm continues to stir controversy on Cape Cod, where opponents vow to tie up the project for years in the courts.
Tempers exploded on the other side of the Atlantic after a consortium of three companies, including Siemens, came together Friday to build one of the United Kingdom’s largest wind farms off the Welsh cost.
Siemens joined forces Friday with RWE and a Munich utility to build a one of Europe's largest offshore wind farms in Wales.
Wind farm politics remain a fiery affair. This is especially true as the size of turbines and farms grows larger Government officials push hard to find renewable energy in the shallow, coastal waters of the Atlantic, the North Sea and the Great Lakes. Many residents object, fearing they will lose something they can’t regain.
As wind towers begin to stand 400 feet or more above sea level, they create a greater threat to the panoramas that have defined ocean-side living for centuries. The result is that projects become more controversial and difficult to site.
This is the case in north Wales, where Siemens, German-based RWE AG and Munich’s municipal utility formed a $2.4 billion partnership on Friday to install 160, 492-foot turbines 10 miles off the coast. The farm is to be completed in 2014 and will be one of Europe’s largest.
Residents complain jobs will be created in Germany instead of Britain. But mostly they worry at the way views of the sea will be changed at the resort community.
Similar complains sound off in Cape Cod. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar approved the 130-turbine project last month. Residents complain the 440-foot towers will interfere with air traffic. But they direct most of their complaints at the way the farm will alter views of the sea and Nantucket.
Similar complaints confront farms planned for the Great Lakes. On Friday, New York added an additional project to the mix, saying it would chose among five proposals for large farms on lakes Erie and Ontario expected by 2015.
Expect more controversy as nations balance change and energy independence.
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Cape Wind has a no “bid deal” for Nantucket Sound. Thusly, Cape Wind has not been “vetted” in a competitive bidding process. This scenario exposes the environment, rate and taxpayers to unacceptable risks. It’s reprehensible that the regulators have never asked the question:
“Who are these guys, Cape Wind, EMI, UPC, First Wind, IVPC?”
http://bjdurk.newsvine.com/_news/2010/02/23/3941508-who-are-these-guys-cape-wind-emi-upc-first-wind-ivpc
Thank You,
Barbara Durkin
independent wind energy researcher
Central Massachusetts
Senator Ted Kennedy on the Cape Wind “no bid” deal:
http://bjdurk.newsvine.com/_news/2009/08/27/3197897-kennedy-floor-statement-on-the-cape-wind-project
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