jmkirlin, my Dad and enthusiastic GE Wind Turbine supporter used to show scale of these 115 foot long blades
See complete story in the comments section.
You can see a very nice .pdf file about them here.
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Reposted yet again for Best of Half Nekkid Thursday 2005. This was an easy choice given that my only other entry was a nasty looking post-IV...
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For Half Nekkid Thursday And fear not, Gentle Viewers, this will not be a blog you must avoid on Thursdays because I'm only doing this o...
In upstate Maine, a wind-power project gathers momentum
ReplyDeleteGround readied on a mountain
By Glenn Adams, Associated Press | August 7, 2006
MARS HILL, Maine -- At the crest of a mountain ridge that hugs northern Maine's border with Canada and shares names with the potato-growing town below, what will become New England's biggest wind-power development so far is quietly taking shape.
A road following the spine of Mars Hill Mountain has been blazed through the thick woods and now connects in dot-to-dot fashion 28 flattened sites where 262-foot high turbines will rise. A contract is to be awarded soon to pour foundations for the turbines, which are being built in Canada.
Once the turbines go up, immense windmill blades -- each 115 feet long -- will be fixed to the towers spaced at six or seven per mile.
Evergreen Wind Power, developers of the $55 million Mars Hill Wind Farm, hopes to begin cranking out power this year.
``The project is large by New England standards," said Peter Gish, general counsel and managing director of UPC Wind Management LLC of Newton, Mass., Evergreen's parent company.
Overlooking breathtaking vistas of green, checkerboard fields spreading out from the mountain's base, and forests and mountains farther in the distance, the 42-megawatt Mars Hill project will provide enough power to supply about 45,000 average Maine homes at full capacity, in effect all of northern Maine's Aroostook County.
Wind turbines usually operate below capacity, but even at 35 percent, Mars Hill will still crank out enough power for at least 22,000 homes, the developers say.
Talks to determine a buyer for the wind farm's power are continuing.
The project will stand out in New England, home to the highest recorded wind speeds in the mainland United States, and, according to the US Department of Energy, the birthplace of wind power in America.
What was once the world's largest electricity-producing windmill was installed in 1941 at Grandpa's Knob, Vt., and razed in 1946. The DOE says the world's first wind farm, which had 20 wind turbines, was built in 1980 at Crotched Mountain in New Hampshire. It ended up a failure.
Today, the only other New England wind power sites capable of producing enough power for commercial distribution are an 11-turbine, 6 megawatt wind farm that's operated in Searsburg, Vt., for nearly a decade, and sites in Princeton, Hull, and Buzzards Bay, Mass., says the American Wind Energy Association, a trade group based in Washington.
Two of New England's most ambitious proposals call for a 120-turbine, 468-megawatt wind farm in Buzzards Bay and the 130-turbine, 420-megawatt Cape Wind in Nantucket Sound. The AWEA counts more than a dozen proposed sites in the six-state region.
``It's clear," Evergreen's Gish says, ``that wind power has captured the imagination of many people." But not everyone.
Projects become bogged down in the permitting process and end up being pulled by developers, said Pete Didisheim of the Natural Resources Council of Maine, which supports wind power in general but has taken issue with some projects.
While wind power is undisputedly clean, opponents cite visual intrusions windmills can become. Some environmentalists wince at the harm caused to birds and bats. Others say they are noisy and inefficient, and cause erosion.
Mars Hill's developers believe they avoided the kinds of opposition other wind projects have confronted because they picked an ideal location.
Gish said Mars Hill is already partially developed with a ski area, several communication towers, and access roads.
He also said it is not in an environmentally sensitive area where bird migration is an issue.
The project also has the support of a strong majority of the town's 1,480 residents -- perhaps 80 to 90 percent -- said Mars Hill town manager Raymond Mersereau.
Some people in town were unhappy that the familiar mountain's appearance would be changed, but Mersereau said the benefits, such as $500,000 in new tax revenues for each of the next 20 years, will take the sting away.
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.
We have a Mars Hill in my town. It's where Lowell Observatory is built...where Pluto was discovered.
ReplyDeleteWe must have one of those going up around here because I have seen those several times coming from the Port of Houston and heading to the highway. I always thought they were windmill blades, but never sure until now. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteso cool. I love the idea or wind power. Hell, I love the execution of wind power.
ReplyDeleteThat is cool.
ReplyDeleteMars Hill...I seem to recall there's a 40 mile model of the solar system in Maine and that Saturn is located nears Mars Hill. Is this the same place?
Whoa! That is one BIG blade. I had trouble finding your dad in the picture.
ReplyDeleteI wish they'd use more wind power here. It's certainly windy enough ALL THE TIME.
You want wind power? Come on out here to California. We have it all over the place... and they are getting BIGGER.
ReplyDeleteWonder if it will ever get put in off Martha's Vinyard? :)
Well, development may be 'quietly taking place', but I fear that the Mars Hill folks are in for a big surprise when they hear the noise those suckers will generate! They may change their mind then.
ReplyDeleteCool photos, btw!!
On a recent trip from NB to Montreal we seen the pieces of the wind turbines being hauled somewhere's towards New Brunswick but never realized they were headed for Mars Hill Maine.
ReplyDeleteInteresting technology no doubt at all !
dawn: Poor demoted Pluto.
ReplyDeletelaanba: What ELSE could they have been? :)
aughra: I love when you love the execution of stuff.
shade: Yeah, and now I think Houlton loses Pluto. Or..someplace loses it. I THINK it's Houlton.
wrath: You should order some of these.
mj: They ought to.
anon: But they have to make electricity SOMEHOW. I think if one opposes a wind mill, that's it. No juice for you. :)
funky: You'll be able to see them!
Have you toured the Mataquac Dam?
Well, I for one am one of those Mars Hill residents who lives downwind, downhill and under the damned things' shadows. For whoever thinks that wind power is the best thing since sliced bread, let them put them in your yard, so you have to listen to them 24/7, you cannot enjoy another sunset because the blades keep the sunlight pulsing at you. Perhaps you all live in cities and don't care about sound, but I for one CHOSE to live in the country with no visible neighbors because I like PEACE and SOLITUDE. It is unbearably loud some days and then fairly quiet some others... those are the days the wind blows the other way... it doesn't come from the east often though, so those days are rare ones. There's most likely going to be residences available here before long, so why don't you all wind-lovers buy us out so we can go once again in search of our peace and quiet.
ReplyDeleteYeah or maybe we could of built a giant nuclear plant, or coal plant instead by your house.. that toxic smoke sure would smell lovely and be great for your health !
ReplyDeleteNo solution is perfect- but I for one, would love to have wind mills in my back yard - Rather then a Coal, oil or nuclear plant.
America's deepening addiction to energy (not just oil, and the accompanying escalation in demand for electricity, will likely result in more coal and nuclear powerplants - as well as industrial wind turbines - in everyone's "back yard". It is incredibly naive to think that wind turbines will be capable of preventing the need for building more conventional powerplants. Consuming 2% more electricity each year than the previous year - as has been occurring in the US for many, many years - dooms us to have both "alternatives".
ReplyDeleteWOWZER!
ReplyDelete