Proposed Plymouth Turbines’ Electricity Destined for NIMBY Neighbors

Map credit: Dick Mann. Legend: Green pins mark 4 turbines; yellow pins mark residential streets in Bourne, red pins are in Plymouth, blue are in Wareham.

The towns of Brewster, Marion, Mattapoisett, and Duxbury defeated wind turbine projects in the last few years. Now each town is signing on to power purchase agreements to lower their electric rates, underwriting a turbine project in Plymouth.

This does not sit well with commentators, who posted about the Rich Eldred piece in Wicked Local Cape Cod, “Brewster may purchase wind power” (10/7/14).

“As a resident of Plymouth,” Margaret Burke writes, “it is my request that Brewster not purchase power from Future Generation Wind on the basis of potential harm to the health of Plymouth and Bourne residents.” She notes that the four 476-foot, 2-megawatt Gamesa turbines will be sited within 1300 to 1400 feet of residents. In addition to Plymouth and Bourne, Wareham residents may also be affected, Burke says, with the noise amplified where turbines are close to bodies of water.

I would encourage anyone in these areas who have concerns about their health and well being and that of their families to contact their Boards of Health and other town officials who should have some information on the FGW plan and can hear your concerns, give you feedback and any action plans they may have on your behalf to protect you from health risks associated with living too close to industrial size turbines.

In the comment posted by Mercedes Medford, “Marie Jane” notes “the people of Plymouth will be the surrogate, [they will] carry the burden of the project.” She warns readers about town government actions and potential contracts mentioned in the article:

BEWARE of tight time frames. BEWARE of promises for “the deal of the century.” BEWARE of those who assert that there is no evidence of intense strobing, decline in property value which is proven, of health issues which are being experienced, complex low frequency noise issues which are proven, no acknowledgement of habitat destruction.

According to the Eldred article, Future Generation Wind project in Plymouth is the initiative of Keith Mann, a cranberry farmer who plans to site four 450-foot-tall turbines on 150 acres near Route 25. “The idea is to sell the power to off-takers. The Cape and Vineyard Electric Cooperative wants to be an off-taker and would sell the green energy power to NStar at a higher price and distribute the gains to member communities.”

With the focus of the article on Brewster, Mark J. Cool–who is impacted by one of the Falmouth turbines–finds “it just might be that in Brewster, it’s OK to exploit neighbors in another community if it should save Brewster a few energy budget bucks.”