Winnipesaukee Forum

Winnipesaukee Forum (https://www.winnipesaukee.com/forums/index.php)
-   General Issues (https://www.winnipesaukee.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=34)
-   -   Groton Wind Farm (https://www.winnipesaukee.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14618)

Pineedles 12-20-2012 08:25 AM

Just a helpful reminder that you can turn off FLL's dancing bananas by pressing the Esc key.:)

NoBozo 12-20-2012 10:35 AM

Update
 
It was Six Months this week since our town owned !.5 MW Turbine (Portsmouth, RI.) has turned. :look: Nothng happening to change that as far as I know. NB

PS: I guess we (Taxpayers) are still paying the mortgage though. :D

fatlazyless 12-23-2012 08:52 AM

About 3-4 miles away, in Campton on Fairgrounds Rd, someone has a huge brown bull and two gurnsey cows that get pastured in a meadow that looks up to the Tenney Mt ridge that is now the new home for all the 24 wind turbines. On a day like today with some big wind blowing, it makes for an interesting picture with all the turbines spinning around big time....they seem to look much better when spinning than when stationary......and it is a bit of a shock to know that about five-million dollars was spent for each individual turbine....and that these will supposedly make a profit? ....the answer to that is blowing in the wind?

And, at least three of the towers are lit up at night with bright red, flashing, triple-light beacons presumably for airplane safety, so's all the homes lining along Lower Beech Hill Rd in Campton that used to have an uncluttered mountain view now get to look at red lights every night........oh well.......tough nuggies and too bad! Maybe it will take five years or so to see how and what these turbine towers and red lights do for the local residential property values. While the local town assessors tend to be a little optimistic with the numbers....the actual selling price is what it is.....as always!

BroadHopper 01-11-2013 02:06 PM

Wild Meadows and Spruce Ridge project
 
The Newfound area is facing the possibility of 90 industrial wind turbines between 400 to 500 feet tall. This number comes from the combined turbines of Groton Wind and the proposed Newfound area Wild Meadows and Groton's Spruce Ridge projects. We're being inundated with wind farms. It starts with an innocent meteorological tower approved by the local town. Once the met tower is in, the wind company can go straight to the SEC for application approval for a project if it is over 30 mw, without any say from the local town in which it will be built. The company and supporters of wind energy claim anyone can file intervener status to object to a project, but the SEC has never turned down a wind turbine project in NH. The SEC is using a ten year old energy policy that was formed by utility companies.

CaptT820 01-15-2013 01:04 PM

Turbines & Northern Pass
 
Unfortunately the red lights are required by the FAA if a tower of any kind (wind, electric, commercial building, etc.) exceeds 200-ft from ground surface in height.
As for concerns with the Northern Pass project, there is a good chance that a "portion" of it will end up being placed underground. The "portion" is still yet to be determined, but right now it appears that around 40 miles of the project may end up underground. I know that at least 2 miles of it as of right now will definitely be underground. Unfortunately it would be nice to put all the lines underground, but as always it comes back to cost, where it is 1/5th the price in most cases to place the lines above ground surface.

BroadHopper 01-16-2013 03:50 PM

Awesome advice!
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Pineedles (Post 195794)
Just a helpful reminder that you can turn off FLL's dancing bananas by pressing the Esc key.:)

This is the best advice I heard in ages :D

Scott's Yott 01-26-2013 12:45 PM

Birds are over rated anyway...Alls they do is POOP on my car

BroadHopper 02-02-2013 09:27 AM

Lakes region Planning Commision
 
Looks like the Wind Farms are getting the local govts attention.

http://laconiadailysun.com/index.php...-lrpcwindfarms

fatlazyless 03-03-2013 12:37 PM

From the Feb 28 Plymouth Record Enterprise, Talk of the Towns column in the Groton section, it says that the Town of Groton is looking for suggestions on what to do with the recent ten thousand dollar payment it received from Iberdrola Wind which was payment for the facility testing period.

"Regarding the two seperate donations to the Town in the amount of $5,000 each from Groton Wind in payment for the facility testing period, the Board is asking for suggestions on what to spend the money on. It has been suggested that electric power be permanently installed in the Ball Park, another suggestion was for a new copier in the Selectmen's Office. Contact the selectmen's office with your thoughts 744-9190."

Jo O'Connor, grotonnews@yahoo.com

NoBozo 04-15-2013 11:57 AM

Update
 
It will be TEN Months this week since our $3M Town Owned !.5 MW Turbine (Portsmouth, RI.) has turned. Broken $800K gearbox. Nothng happening to change that as far as I know. :look: NB

PS: See post #101 and #102 for background.

fatlazyless 04-15-2013 08:01 PM

Over on Belknap Point Rd, on the Winnipesaukee waterfront in Gilford, not too far up from the NH Marine Patrol Hdqtrs, there's a single family house that besides having a very nice looking tennis court, also has a pretty good sized electric-generating wind turbine atop a tall steel tower near their tennis court. Yesterday on Sunday, while bicycling in that area, I noticed it for the first time and was a little surprised that the local Gilford zoning would allow for such a big wind turbine in a shoreline residential area but then again whatdoIknowaboutit anyway?:rolleye2:


Who knows but just maybe that wind turbine can get the electric meter for the house to go backwards or something? Seems like it might just be a great way to turn your windy waterfront location into a mini-Winni windfarm! At the time yesterday afternoon, the wind turbine was spinning & spinning & spinning & spinning & spinning ........ad infinitum! .....it was pretty danged windy yesterday! ....... so it must have been making and selling electricity back into the electric grid to the NH Electric Coop ...... wow......how about that! I think I want one just like that on my little lot so's I can go do the same thing....put those windy kilowatts to work selling electricity for me!

Is one of these not-so-small residential wind turbines that makes your electric meter go backwards an expensive and unattractive looking, money-losing contraption, or is it a money-saving machine whose appearance sort of grows on the owner every time he/she gets the monthly electric bill?

.................

This is probably the answer to my point about a supposed Gilford zoning ordinance that prohibits wind turbines. A quick google search of "New Hampshire RSA wind turbines" found this http://www.nh.gov/oep/resourcelibrary/swes/ which has a link to HB310, a NH law passed in 2008 that says among other things that "collection of renewable energy shall not be unreasonably limited by use of municipal zoning powers or the unreasonable interpretation of such powers except where necessary to protect the public health, safety, and welfare."

Picture hereth yon reader .... a high quality photograph, taken on a bright sunny day, of said not-very-small wind turbine atop a tall steel tower nestled attractively next to yon tennis court on a luxurious Lake Winnipesaukee, Belknap Point, Gilford, waterfront residential lot that includes a very nice, single family, shoreline residence......spin-spin-spin!

It also has a link, Renewable Energy Incentives, for renewable energy incentives that includes property tax exemptions applied to tower and wind turbine from individual towns(?).

Like, money probably makes a huge big difference in how people think about having a wind turbine on their residential property; receiving electricity credit off your monthly electric bill by causing your electric meter to run backwards, being property tax exempt from local property tax, and getting federal tax credits as well are among the items to consider when thinking about installing a personal wind turbine tower on your property.

Is a residential wind turbine something you might consider, and is it a winner or a loser type of an item?

http://energy.gov/energysaver/articles/small-wind

NoBozo 07-05-2013 06:50 PM

The Democrat Town Council (Back Then) Voted to build a !.5 MegaWatt Town Owned wind turbine. SO the town built it. ($3M) The Republicans won the Next town council election. During the Republican tenure..the turbine Broke and because of this...The Republicans last November were replaced by Democrats... (Go Figure).

The wind turbine has been Dormant for Over a year now and the Democrat Town Council seems to be IMPOTENT. They don't know nothin about no stinkin turbine. You can't make this stuff up. :look: NB

EDIT: You probably have to back up a few posts to Get It.

BroadHopper 07-06-2013 10:14 AM

Newfound lake Watch
 
I heard thru the internet, that someone is going around damaging, defacing signs set up by the opposition to wind mills. Someone took a number of these signs and clogged up the storm drain in front of a number of the local police stations. That's a pretty bold move!

NoBozo 07-06-2013 06:49 PM

Just A Recount Of The Events.
 
I'm not sure what BH was inferring ..about people against windmills. I Voted against the windmill in the beginning. Being a fiscal conservative I didn't think borowing $3M during a recession was justified.

The town voted to Build It anyway. Once the turbine started going up I started to Like It. i became a supporter as long as it RAN and produced power. Then it broke. And then the guy from Seattle came out and looked at it. He prounounced it a "Dead Horse"..every which way you massaged the numbers...... It was a "Dead Horse".

So the Dead Turbine sits there in plain view of every tourist that comes over the bridge to the island from the North and those that exit the island heading north.

OH WAIT: There is a NEW (TOLL) bridge that tourists will have to cross to get to our little island of Aquidneck from the north..which you will have to use to get to NEWPORT. Our economy IS Tourism..just like the Lakes. The OLD bridge was free since it was built in 1956.

Don't have a RI EZPass...?? No problem. It will cost out of staters $10 round trip. NO toll collecters. A Scanner above the road will record your licence plate and send you a bill if you don't have the "Correct" transponder. Welcome to Our State. :eek: NB

PS: Rhode Island has been Democrat for the past 70 years. (95%)

BroadHopper 07-07-2013 08:40 PM

Keep this in mind,
 
according to wind turbine association AEE. Spanish manufacturers are rapidly laying off workers. Investors in wind turbines no longer look attractive. The heart of the problem are the subsidies needed to cover the gap between the cost of producing electricity and the price charged to consumers. The German wind program is imploding, Germany is now facing up to the hard realities of maintenance costs, and backup power. As stated in the Heartland Institute science director Jay Lehr's June 17 Wall Street Journal commentary predicting wind developers lack of funds for the dismantling of their turbines will lead to a scene from a scifi movie with the earth covered with rusting hulks all over the land scape.

songkrai 07-10-2013 05:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rusty (Post 193990)
The Groton payment in lieu of tax agreement states that once the turbines are licensed and operating, each of the 24 turbines will net the town $22,000 a year. The PILOT base fee also increases annually by 2.5 percent.

$22,000 x 24 = $528,000/yr to the little town of Groton.

Spin Baby Spin!! :D

The bottom line is.

Move to Groton. Where property taxes are real cheap.

NoBozo 01-28-2016 07:44 PM

I haven't posted in some time. I thought this might interest some of you who are interested in Wind Turbines. The Portsmouth, RI.. 1.5 MW wind turbine Owned by the town has been inactive for going on 4 years due to a failed gearbox. This turbine was the first such installation .. in RI and much celebrated.

Today, (1/28/16) the turbine came "down to the ground". It will be replaced by a NEW 1.5 MW "Direct Drive" turbine in the next few days. Direct Drive means NO GEARBOX. :look: NB

http://www.providencejournal.com/art...NEWS/311059970

EDIT: Here are some pictures of our Late turbine.

http://www.eastbayri.com/news/govern...g-down-photos/

wifi 01-28-2016 08:10 PM

When it "worked", did it generate any revenue ? Any guarantee the new company will last long enough for support? Is this just another liberal, global warming faux pas to save face ?

NoBozo 01-29-2016 06:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wifi (Post 256410)
When it "worked", did it generate any revenue ? Any guarantee the new company will last long enough for support? Is this just another liberal, global warming faux pas to save face ?

There was a book written by Jack London in the very early 20th Century called "The Cruise Of the Snark". Most of his books were novels. The Snark was a real life description of his quest to have a Yacht built to his specifications.

When things didn't go as he would have liked..(he was being scammed by the builders)..He and his wife would say....Just think of that "Beautiful Bow".
-------------------
When my wife and I would drive by the Portsmouth Wind Turbine...WE would say....."Look at that wonderful Wind Turbine". :) NB

EDIT; According to the article in a previous post, the turbine made $340,000 over the three years it ran. The problem was...IT DIED before it could pay off it's bills.

NoBozo 02-01-2016 06:45 PM

Update
 
The OLD Wind Turbine has been totally removed. The skyline is EMPTY as you drive on to the island. OMG. The BIG Crane was removed this morning. Seven years ago this crane cost $10K/day plus $10k Setup fee. It is a BIG Crane.

NOW: The NEW word is the NEW turbine will NOT be installed...until maybe in June. :look:

My thoughts as an engineer, Maybe the NEW Turbine needs a NEW Foundation...That take's time.....The "Story" changes .............AS Required :( (Sarc) NB

Cobalt 25 02-12-2016 07:24 PM

Thanks for the updates, NoBozo.

wifi, a quote from you, "Is this just another liberal, global warming faux pas to save face ?"

It would appear you do not believe in the concept of global warming, in spite of the findings of over 97% of the world's climate scientists. Fine, nothing that I could possibly say could convince you otherwise.

But for the rest of the folks interested in learning more about wind generators, I hoping my personal experience with them will be of value.

I recently moved from our home which was situated maybe a quarter mile from the largest array of wind generators in MA. Our home was one of the closest to these structures.

Noise- maybe 5% of the time I was out of doors (which was a lot, we heated with wood and I harvested the fuel from our property plus I love being outside) I could hear a soft whooshing noise. I could never hear it from inside the house, even in the summer with the windows open.

Effects on property values- I sold our house myself and in interviewing maybe 50 parties all together I did not hear ONE person bring up the wind generators in a negative manner. Several had positive responses, most never even mentioned them.

Percentage of time on line- of the 19 structures, 10 were highly visible to me. I observed that those 10 generators usually had all 10 working at once, occasionally one would be down.

Economics- a solid business model is to sell your product to the highest bidder, regardless of location. The towns of Florida and Monroe derive property tax income from this project, for a total of $257,000 per annum. They can provide power for 10,000 homes. I do not know the profit margin of the company, but I hope they are doing well.

I believe we need to explore all possibilities when it comes to trying to minimize the very real impact of global warming. Wind power for electrical use is really in it's infancy. The Model T didn't have GPS, and wind generators will get better if we support their development in spite of early complications.

Here is a website with more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoosac_Wind_Power_Project

I hope this adds to the discussion...

Peter

NoBozo 02-25-2016 06:49 PM

Update
 
The Portsmouth Wind Turbine site: They are digging a big hole on the site. It seems they are going to plant a new foundation for the new turbine. I monitor the site with binoculars..:D...I can't get inside the fence without getting arrested... and probably beaten. :look: NB

NoBozo 06-12-2016 06:08 PM

Activity on Site
 
As of yesterday things are getting moving. There are now three BIG "Tubes" lying horizontal in the high school parking lot that will comprise the tower.

A BIG crane is also on site but has not yet been erected. This kind of crane arrives on site with multiple flat bed trucks in attendance and needs to be assembled on site...booms, outriggers, EDIT (19 flatbed trucks) (6-15-16 )etc..

Other big turbine component parts are further up the hill....maybe a turbine hub..and other stuff. No turbine blades yet.

This turbine will be Direct Drive..No gear box. This type of turbine is generally taller and the fan disc is greater in diameter, EDIT: I was Wrong: compared to a Step UP geared turbine of the same output. (1.5 MW) These blades are 114' in length..compared to the old geared turbine with 123' blades.:look: NB

NoBozo 06-15-2016 06:41 PM

Update
 
The weather has been fantastic. These guys are not standing still. (Bay Crane Inc) As of this afternoon (Wednesday, 15th..@1545) All three "tubes" are erected and the nacelle is on top. These guys work from dawn to dusk...didn't see anyone even stopping for lunch. Nacelle is 250 feet above ground. The old turbine was 212 feet above ground. :D NB

Note: The blades are not only on site..as of 1530, they were moving them up to the dirt lot where the tower is. :) :)

NoBozo 06-16-2016 02:07 PM

All Done
 
Noon Thursday everything was done. The crane is being disassembled by a small crew. The only thing left is to throw the big switch connected to the Grid. :)

The new turbine is now privately owned, leasing the land it sits on from the town. The turbine owners will charge the Town 15.5 cents per KWh for the power it makes for the next 25 years. The rest of us pay 10 cents. :look: NB

NoBozo 08-06-2016 06:50 PM

The NEW Portsmouth, RI (now privately owned) wind turbine started running on Tuesday. This direct drive turbine is supposed to be 1.5 MW. The fan disc is distinctly smaller than the original 1.5 MW geared turbine. I'm thinking this new turbine may be "Downrated" ...maybe to 1.0 MW. Let the SCAM continue :eek:

The best part...every minute the turbine runs...The town will pay 15.5 cents/Kw for the power......going into the Grid...weather the town needs the power or not. Local rates are about 10 cents/Kw. :eek: NB

NoBozo 08-06-2016 07:07 PM

SHORTLY: Rhode Island will have the Block Island offshore wind farm up and running. This fall. FIVE 6.0 MW turbines on pedestals in the sea. 30 MW total. That's BIG. I can't be sure..I think the electric rate will be 23 cents/Kw..or something. It's just hard to comprehend how this is happening. :eek: NB


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 03:37 PM.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, vBulletin Solutions Inc.