BigWind ‘amendments’ should garner attention in the Ohio legislature!

In an astonishing turn of events, Sen. Cliff Hite has suffered his own personal “setback” and has resigned from the Ohio Senate following an accusation of sexual misconduct.  Hite was the primary driver of legislation to reduce industrial wind turbine setbacks and return their measurement to the foundation of the property-owner’s home as opposed to his/her property line.  We will keep you posted on what will happen next.  It would seem odd to us that a bill could move forward if there is no sponsor.

Two days ago, EverPower filed its fifth amendment to the Scioto Ridge project in order to introduce the possible use of larger turbine models.    We question whether this request will be considered an “amendment” to the Scioto Ridge Project which would trigger property line setbacks.    The timing of the filing was certainly a coincidence.  Did the appearance in the Senate that SB 188 was moving right along give Scioto Ridge the confidence to go forward with their amendment?  Did they know that on the same day, they would lose their biggest advocate in the Senate?   The Hite bill repeals the requirement that EverPower lose its “grandfathered” status if they file an amendment to the project.  This raises all kinds of questions.   We note the application for the amendment claims the turbine manufacturer can control shadow flicker and limit it to 30 hours and that it can similarly manage noise output.   Generally this means stopping the turbine when 30 hours of flicker are reached or manipulating the blades when atmospheric conditions increase noise.  Both of these strategies decrease production and $.

Irregardless, this filing should trigger attention by Ohio Senators, especially in light of the SB 188. Why? As some senators have been swayed by BigWind to shorten the BigWind setbacks, turbine heights have more than doubled in the past 10 years alone!  This impacts neighboring properties MORE with shadow flicker, noise, ice throws etc and SHOULD result in greater SAFETY setbacks for Ohioans!

We do want to correct an error from the last issue of Wind News.   Current setback law requires 1125 feet plus the length of one blade from a property line. That’s about 1300 feet or about 2.6 times the height of a 500 foot tall wind turbine. This happens to be about 400 m which is in the ballpark of the safety manuals.   The setback today IS NOT measured in a multiple of turbine height.  Such a formula would protect neighboring property owners when models with taller turbines and longer blades are substituted for currently approved turbines.  The Skindell bill proposed a multiple of 1.1 x tower height plus blade and the Hite bill proposed 1.2x tower height plus blade length.  These both fall short of the 2.6x or 1300 feet of the existing setback.  The 1300 feet is derived by adding a setback of 1,320 feet with a 195 foot blade.

 

 

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Will Ohio legislators believe BigWind or look to the TRUTH that has happened in Minnesota?

Ohio legislators have a couple of BigWind legislation pieces to vote on, in the upcoming weeks.  Informed, educated Ohioans do NOT want BigWind in their backyard, for a variety of reasons. However, most legislators don’t really care about doesn’t directly affect them.  Below, is a prime example of how BigWind AFFECTS ALL OF US.  Ohioans, like Minnesota, enjoy the benefits of cheap electricity.  Yes, our electric bills are rising, but they are nowhere near many Americans pay for electricity.  Ohio does not need BigWind and neither do our bills.  Below is proof that BigWind WILL RAISE ELECTRICITY RATES for ALL Ohioans.  Senator Cliff Hite refuses to acknowledge these truths…

In recent years, the state of Minnesota has pursued a series of increasingly aggressive renewable energy and “clean energy” policies that cost electricity consumers billions of dollars, without achieving its ambitious environmental protection goals….

Historically, Minnesota enjoyed the advantage of relatively cheap electricity, with rates typically 18 percent less than the national average. However, since spending an estimated $10 billion on building wind farms and billions more on new and upgraded  transmission lines, Minnesota has lost this competitive advantage with little to show for it, except higher electric bills. As electricity generation from carbon free wind approaches 20 percent of total generation, Minnesota has not experienced any appreciable reduction in greenhouse gas emissions relative to the U.S. average.

This report evaluates Minnesota’s energy policy and reaches five main findings that buttress one conclusion: Minnesota’s aspirational energy policy is a grand exercise in virtue signaling that does little to reduce either conventional pollution or greenhouse gas emissions.

Minnesota has lost its advantage on electricity pricing. Between 1990 and 2009, the retail price of electricity in Minnesota was, on average, 18.2 percent lower than the national average. However, in just seven years, this price advantage has completely disappeared. February 2017 marked the first month the average retail price of electricity in Minnesota rose above the U.S. price. (Data are available dating back to 1990.) If in the past seven years Minnesota would have maintained its historic price advantage versus the rest of the country, the state’s consumers would have paid nearly $4.4 billion less than what the actual cost of electricity turned out to be.

Minnesota’s energy policy primarily promotes wind power. Minnesota’s energy policy emphasizing renewable energy is mostly an electricity policy, which represents only about 40 percent of the state’s total energy consumption. Because Minnesota’s geography is not suitable for large-scale solar power, it aims, to date, for only modest increases in solar. As such, Minnesota’s energy policy is primarily a wind-energy policy.

Minnesota’s energy policy is failing on its own terms, as it has not achieved a significant reduction in CO2 emissions….

Time to cut through the BigWind bull in Ohio…

Reading below, you would ‘think’ that the Mercer county engineer did something odd, by notifying county residents that BigWind was, again, prowling in the area. The reality? Apex, which apparently now wants to be called, ACE, SCHEDULED A MEETING WITH THE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, MID MONTH…ACE has, since this, CANCELLED their meeting.  Their failure to build in S Van Wert county has NOTHING to do with setbacks- that’s a political ponzi scheme- instead, ACE can’t get to a substation because educated land owners refuse to give them the rights. They are having to ‘renew’ leases because this reality has stalled their plans….plans to desecrate the landscape, plans to destroy bird/bat habitat, plans to harm the health of some neighbors.  There is no doubt that ACE WANTS to acquire more land- ALL of the BigWind companies do!….
Mercer County Engineer Jim Wiechart claims Apex Clean Energy has been attempting to secure land rights from property owners in northern Mercer County for wind turbines, without notifying the public or local governments.
Company representatives, though, told the newspaper they’re not actively seeking any new properties in northern Mercer County at this time.
“Because your livelihood and the well-being of your land is important, I would like you to be aware of this proposed large scale industrial wind turbine project that Apex Clean Energy is attempting to develop and how you, as landowners, can help protect your land,” Wiechart wrote in a news released he issued on Friday afternoon.
Local officials, Wiechart said, have limited to no authority when it comes to regulating “large landscape-altering projects.”
“Instead, this authority currently resides with the Ohio Power Siting Board,” Wiechart wrote. “The only real and tangible method to preclude a landscape altering development across a multiple township area is for the company (Apex Clean Energy) to be unable to acquire land rights in a geographic foot print to site.”
Weichart requested that all landowners approached by ACE, or any other wind development company, educate themselves about the “significant rights” they are granting before signing any contracts…
“We’re renewing leases, but we’re not really aggressively pursuing anything,” Moser said. “Right now nothing’s happening because of the setbacks at the state level, so there’s not going to be anything happening in Van Wert or Mercer County until the legislation figures things out at the state level.”…
“Currently Apex has invested over $19 million in Ohio, so it’s hard to keep investing when you can’t build,” Moser said. “We don’t really want to put a lot more money out there until we know what’s going to happen with (the legislation), so we’re just kind of on hold. I think there’s just people trying to stir the pot in Mercer County, to be honest.”…
Steve Caminati, senior manager of strategic engagement at ACE, also said the company was not looking to acquire any new properties in northern Mercer County at this time. He wondered aloud if there might be confusion concerning old land leases, but did not elaborate further, saying he needs to look into the matter.
“With the current state setback requirements, this project is pretty much on hold,” Caminati said.

Source: Official claims wind company seeking land for turbines | The Daily Standard Stories

(yet another) BigWind Turbine in Ohio FAILS to produce power

Now we know, for fact, that multiple individual turbines have failed to produce the power that was promised, because we have blogged about them here.  Additionally, the NW Ohio industrial wind energy sites UNDERproduce, merely giving consumers 30% of what they originally promised to produce.  At what point, will others agree that Ohio is NOT a good place for industrial wind turbines?! It doesn’t exactly take a genius to figure this out….have YOU contacted YOUR state legislator to share this truth? Why not?….

Possible ‘win-win situation’ turned out to be less so….

Wind turbines are supposed to spin and in doing so make power.

The one adjacent to American Legion post 41 west of Norwalk, after some trials and tribulations, got the spinning right but not the power part.

If the truth be known, however, even the spinning part was an eight-year problem.

But, first things first.

 A member of the post’s executive board addressed the purchase of a wind turbine in 2008. He told members that he had learned the state was giving as much as a 50-percent credit toward the energy bill if wind power was used. The post would have an initial outlay of about $100,000, however, that figure paying for the tower, foundation and the fencing. The road was already in. The members approved the project.
 Daniels Construction from Berlin Heights was contracted for the instillation of the Enertech E13 turbine.

And the beauty of it was the government was going to and did issue a $83,944 grant (check) for using wind power.

“One can see it looked like a win-win situation for us,” post spokesman Tom Cesa said…

Post officials recognized there was a problem three weeks into the start of the machine, one that took a full two-years to bring on line due to the many permits and wind studies it took before start-up…

“Initially, there was a problem with the braking system of the turbine,” Cesa said. “The system has to maintain control of the speed of revolutions and it was running out of control with the possibility of tearing itself apart. That new braking system fix would come out of the Post’s pocket, $10,000.

“Then the power cable that sends power from the armature down to the meter box started to wrap up for lack of a wire-connection ring,” he added.

“So, every week, sometimes after just three or four days, someone had to get inside the fencing enclosure and disconnect the quick-connect connections we had installed after the fact, so we did not have to climb to the top of the tower to untwist them. That was a five-minute job, but a must, so the wiring to the rectifier and inverter would not be twisted off.”

The bottom line is a turbine that cost upwards of $200,000 had run for three months and really not done much more than that, just spinning.

One might say, however, those early problems were all correctable ones.

There was one other glaring one, however. One that would never be corrected. While the turbine was online, supposedly making power and saving the owners money, it was doing very little of either.

“Upon signing the purchase order, we were told the turbine would pay for itself in 10 years and then would have a life expectancy of another 15,” Cesa stated. “Well, because the generator was virtually powerless, the post realized a grand total of $10 in savings over those three months….

“I gave it every chance, but when after the turbine ran for nine weeks with no problems over that span, I checked the meter and found it producing so little a power that it was not paying for the power it cost to run the meter. It is either the turbine is too small or the generator inadequate or both,” Cesa believes.

The bottom line is in good faith, the Legion spent upwards of $100,000 and received virtually nothing in return and that nothing includes help from the Attorney General’s Office and an attorney who supposedly was an expert in this field.

So, what went up in good faith nine years ago will come down, the wind turbine that is. The tower will remain standing.

Source: Norwalk Reflector: American Legion post member attempts to salvage wind turbine project

8 BigWind turbines create health problems for >=50 residents. Is Ohio paying attention?

Is Ohio paying attention to this reality? NO. We currently have 2 pieces of legislation up for a vote to significantly reduce the protective setback for industrial wind energy turbines. Many senators and representatives are oblivious, ignorant, or simply careless. (Senators Skindell, Brown, Yuko, O’Brien, Schiavoni, Tavares, Thomas, Williams,  Hite and Representatives Burkley and Brown) This is such a shame….May God Bless Van Wert and Citizens for Clear Skies in their pursuits…

…The small town of Glenmore sits near the other end of the Niagara escarpment in Brown County, Wisconsin. I’ve followed their story from the time Apex “Clean” Energy invaded our beautiful countryside and divided our peaceful little towns.

Duke Energy-owned Shirley Wind, with just eight 492-foot turbines, has been nothing short of a nightmare for numerous families living near the project. Ever since the blades on these 2.5 mW industrial turbines began turning, life changed dramatically for at least 20 families. Initially unaware of the correlation between their symptoms and the low frequency noise and infrasonic by-products of wind-generated electricity, more than 50 residents have pleaded to the Brown County Board of Health for help.

Three families have been forced to abandon their homes to seek relief from the incessant noise and related illnesses. What possible reason, other than inability to live among the turbines, would prompt these families to flee and bear the financial burden of two mortgages?…

Source: MAILBAG: Shirley Wind, a cautionary tale for New York State | Opinion | lockportjournal.com

Can BigWind (hidden consequences) send us BACK to the dark ages?

Could BigWind actually cause human progress to REGRESS? Could renewable energy actually send us into a tailspin toward the PAST? As the world runs toward renewable energy, will we be FORCED to curtail our electrical usage, based on weather patterns? The article, below, does beg us to consider the longer consequences of instability onto our electrical grids….

The hidden consequences of a massive use of intermittent renewable energy systems for electricity production are highlighted, using existing electricity production data from Germany from the last 5 years…The high variability of both sun and wind leads to periods of massive overproduction as well as renewable power shortages. To compensate this, ideally, both storage and backup power should be able to deliver at any moment nearly the full load of the grid. However, storage at the scale required for a hypothesized 100% renewable system is not feasible with current technologies. Battery storage is totally insufficient and will need a substantial technological breakthrough… It is clear that there is an urgent need for a critical assessment of the practical feasibility of a 100% renewable power system with due consideration of the required backup/storage system.

If the outcome of these studies is that the required huge storage systems are unfeasible and that at the same time fossil and nuclear options are rejected, the only solution is to adapt the activity of the society to the availability of electricity and to restrict power availability to part of the population/activities during periods of darkness or absence of wind. If badly planned, we risk entering a new era where daily life could depend again on the variability of the weather, as it was centuries ago….

Source: Hidden consequences of intermittent electricity production

Life among Van Wert, Ohio turbines. Senator Hite, are you listening?

State Sen. Cliff Hite wants wind turbine setbacks changed.

I live among turbines in the Blue Creek wind project in Van Wert County. The closest turbine is approximately 1,700 feet from my home. This turbine and others that are not as close have caused sleepless nights, headaches and head pulses. That is just in my home. Others suffer from migraines, dizziness and chest pains.

These are just health concerns. There are many who have TV and cell phone interruption, drainage issues, cracked garage floors, well issues, soil compaction, loss of crop yields, and loss of property value. It is difficult to sit outside and enjoy a beautiful day, or to open windows when it is cool enough not to have air conditioning running. I can even hear the noise of the turbines inside my home with windows and doors closed and the TV or radio playing.

Last summer, a turbine started a whining sound which then became a siren sound. This sound continued for six months. I had to leave my home several times because the noise was unbearable. Is this leaving Ohio for the better?…

Source: Letter: Life among wind turbines – The Lima News