Windmills on Ice Mountain - Gamesa Wind Turbines

[sandstone]

From the Bedford Gazette:

To the editor;

A recent Gazette article comparing coalplants and windplants caught my eye. The class described in the article failed to elaborate on how many windplants would be required to replace a given number of coalplants. This probably was intentional, because the answer is mind-bogling.

The Commonwealth has 30+ coalplants, ranging in size from 800 MegaWatts to 2,300 MegaWatts. To produce 6,000 MegaWatts of electrical power would require about 3 large coalplants or 9,000 industrial-scale wind turbines. Each industrial-scale turbine is rated at 2 MegaWatts, but no industrial windplant east of the Mississippi River has exceeded an annualized 30% capacity factor, thus 9,000 industrial turbines x 2 MW/turbine x 30% = 5,400 MW, but let's say 6,000 MW to be generous. Since industrial-scale wind turbines are spaced 6 per mile, the placement of 9,000 industrial turbines would require the sacrifice of 1,500 miles of ridgetop to build the roads, transmission lines, substations, etc. associated with industrial windplants. Even then, the electricity would not supply baseload requirements because the power and presence of wind are unreliable.

Scientists estimate that we must reduce our CO2 output by 80% by 2050 to stave off the worst effects of global warming. The only electricity source that we currently have available that can meet baseload demands while not producing CO2 is nuclear. Pennsylvania has five nuclear plants which provide more than 30% of the Keystone State's electricity needs. By expanding the capacity of existing nuclear plants, we can provide the baseload capacity to replace existing coalplants, something that industrial windplants cannot do.

Stan Kotala, M.D.

[My2Cents]

Literally, wait-til-ya-see Dot P today.... I'm not talking about 'ole what's her name.

[Old Sgt]

Something to say,
I checked out your web site. Nice Job! The photo of how much land must be removed to install one turbine speaks volumes.......Thanks!

[Something to say]

Thanks Sarge. Imagine the run-off!

[Luke]

Everyone should watch that website and look at those pictures. If we allow this to happen in our area then we are selling ourselves to people who are raping our one asset that we can never recover....natural beauty.

[sammie]

Groups sue wind project to protect bats, birds

May 18, 2008 by Paul J. Nyden in Charleston Gazette

Eleven citizen and environmental groups in West Virginia and Maryland have filed a 60-day notice about their intent to sue a wind power project.
They say the huge turbines from the NedPower Mount Storm project would kill endangered bats and squirrels near the Dolly Sods Wilderness Area.

The groups also will sue corporate owners Dominion Resources and Shell Wind Energy for violating the Endangered Species Act, according to Judy Rodd, director of Friends of Blackwater Canyon, based in Charleston.

Rodd said wind power companies are ignoring the "huge number of birds and bats that will be killed each year by the project," including eagles that will be "decapitated as they try to return to their winter homes near Mount Storm Lake."
Threatened species include the West Virginia northern flying squirrel, Indiana bat and Virginia big-eared bat.

In their 60-day notice, the 11 groups ask NedPower to provide them with a formal Habitat Conservation Plan evaluating and predicting threats to endangered species.

The groups also sent letters expressing their concerns to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the West Virginia Public Service Commission about threats to bald eagles, golden eagles and other migrating birds protected by existing federal legislation.

In a related development, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy adopted a new position on wind power earlier this month to include their overall impact on energy production, in addition to their impact on local communities.

An article in the May 2008 edition of "The Highlands Voice" stated the group's previous policy focused primarily on issues like aesthetic values and dangers to birds and bats.

"One of the appealing features of wind power has always been that it produced none of the air or water pollution associated with coal," the Highlands Conservancy stated. "Were it replacing coal, then wind would be highly attractive."

But, the article added, if "wind energy does not replace coal, then there is less justification for suffering the costs to society associated with wind."

Scientific researchers, Rodd added, recently estimated 4,000 bats were killed in one year at the Mountaineer Wind Project, located less than 14 miles from the proposed NedPower facility.

"That project operates 44 turbines, while NedPower in Grant County is certified to build 200 turbines that could kill more than 20,000 bats annually," she stated.

West Virginia University Professor Emeritus Robert Leo Smith prepared a scientific analysis accompanying the groups' notice of intent to sue, warning that babies of the endangered Virginia northern flying squirrels could be killed when mountainous lands are cleared for roads, power lines and turbines.

NedPower's wind turbine project is being built on the Allegheny Front along a 14-mile stretch between Mt. Pisgah to Bear Rocks near Dolly Sods.

Landowners who live near the project also have filed a nuisance suit against NedPower citing concerns about their health and safety, as well as reductions in their property values.

Richard Neely, a Charleston lawyer and former Supreme Court justice, represents them.

Other groups in the coalition issuing the 60-day notice include: Friends of the Allegheny Front, Highlanders for Responsible Development, the Maryland Alliance for Greenway Improvement and Conservation and Stewards of the Potomac Highlands.

Web link: http://sundaygazettemail.com/News/200805171816

[My2Cents]

Thanks for above info sammie. I just had a chance to look at the "web link" at the bottom of your above post. What really caught my eye, aside from the fact that approx. 4000 bats were killed.. it is also mentioned in the article, "One of the appealing features of wind power has always been that it produces none of the air or water pollution associated with coal." "Were it replacing coal, then wind would be highly attractive." "If wind energy does not replace coal, then there is less justification for suffering the costs to society with wind."
This is one of the problems here in our community with many folks trying to understand the whole scenerio of wind mill operations. Most people still think... these monstrosities are going to go up.... the wind is going to blow.... electricity will be generated..... our town will be powered by windmills and electricity bills will come down. Granted, thank goodness for those individuals in the know, those with first hand accounts and who know the potential problems that will ensue....because of them, word has gotten out to the public.... moreso now, than it would have last fall, when that lease was on the verge of a signature.
Most people still do not understand the whole concept of "wind mills." Prior to this, most people didn't even know what a "grid" was, let alone understand it's operation, along with the fact of where it's coming from and where it's going to.... most of all, what makes it function.
Most people still do not understand that these wind mills have to depend in that grid for their own operation. If there were a blackout in this area, those wind mills will go down too... they won't produce any electricity what-so-ever.... they, themselves, need electricity from that grid on order to function.
These wind mills are merely and addition to that grid... turning off and on, depending on the wind that day. A grid that has been functioning fine 99.9% of the time. Polluting the air YES, but, functioning fine.

[Luke]

Has anyone thought of organizing informational field trips to the closest site to Tyrone. Or....how about someone posting where the closest one is with directions so we can go out and take a lot ourselves.

[Something to say]

Thanks for your comment on the page Luke.

This past weekend my inlaws were up from VA... We took them for a drive out around Bedford County to see the Bedford Springs Resort....while we were in that area we decided to go to Gravity Hill... I took the wrong road and ended up in someone's driveway... He had STOP GAMESA signs on his property and told us they are fighting to keep the turbines off their side of the mountain. They would literally be on top of him. My heart went out to him ..... I can't even imagine how disturbing that must be for those families living up that hollow.

Gamesa reminds me of bad weeds...just keeps poppin up and comin back.

[My2Cents]

I don't know how to take an article written from somewhere else and put it onto this site. I wish I knew how because I just read an outstanding post that I think should be shared with everybody.
It can be found in the WeAreCentralPA.com web site... in the windmill section ...page #8, Saturday, May 17th at 12:19 PM. "trailduster" posted an outstanding article, written by Eric Williams. It is a very worthwhile read... please go there and check it out when you get a chance.

[sandstone]

Has anyone thought of organizing informational field trips to the closest site to Tyrone. Or....how about someone posting where the closest one is with directions so we can go out and take a lot ourselves.

Yeah, I've thought about it. Since the spring of 2006 I've spent more than 1,000 hours of my time on this issue, and, frankly, I'm exhausted. I'm not getting paid for my efforts while the Gamesa employees are. Gamesa takes out full-page ads in the Herald. Gamesa's PR guys get Gamesa press releases printed almost verbatim in the Herald.

People see things through different lenses depending on their interests and level of knowledge. I value Blair County's natural heritage. I respect the results of the Blair County Natural Heritage Inventory, a scientific document that describes Ice Mountain as being unique and "of exceptional conservation value." I don't need any other information to make up my mind that Ice Mountain is not an appropriate place to consturct a shopping center, a housing development, a ski resort, a cathedral, a university, or an industrial windplant.

In contrast, Tyrone Borough Council Vice President Bill Latchford repeatedly states that he does not value our natural heritage, thus negating the Blair County Natural Heritage Inventory with an "I don't care" attitude. Many others share that attitude.

Mark Twain described seeing a beautiful woman walk down the street of his hometown and remarked on her beauty to the physician friend he was with, but the physician saw the black mole on her shoulder and was concerned about skin cancer. Without the knowledge of the harm that can come from certain things, black moles or fragmention of forests, you probably won't recognize the danger.

A trip to the Allegheny Ridge Wind Plant might not be instructive to those people without a solid ecogical knowledge base. Will people recognize the adverse effects of forest fragmentation? Many of these effects, such as loss of species diverstity and the invasion by alien invasive plants, take years to develop. In addition, unless someone knew what the thousands of acres occupied by the Allegheny Ridge Wind Farm looked like prior to the windplant, it would be hard to understand the radical changes in the landscape that have occurred: dozens of miles of new heavy-duty roadway, wide transmission line corridors, many acres cleared of vegetation for substations and accessory buildings, wide access roads roamed at all hours by ATVs and 4x4s looking for places to "rip and tear", as well as the presence of 45 (soon to be 90!) gargantuan industrial wind turbines that dominate the landscape over this 50 square-mile area (noise, aesthetic degradation, bird and bat kills, etc.).

Below is a great Op-Ed piece by Gary Thornbloom, chair of the Moshannon Group of the Sierra Club, based in State College:

State Forest Energy Extraction Schemes endanger our Natural Heritage

The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources' decision to open 75,000 acres of Pennsylvania's State Forests to gas drilling combined with that agency's proposal to open 45,000 acres of State Forest land to industrial windplant development indicate that the department's decision-makers have a poor understanding of the adverse effects of forest fragmentation. It is impossible to construct miles of roadway associated with gas wells or miles of roads and transmission lines associated with industrial windplants and not cause severe forest fragmentation.

These adverse effects of forest fragmentation include reduced habitat area, habitat isolation and loss of species from an area, disruption of dispersal, increased edge effects and loss of core habitat, and the facilitation of alien invasive species. Due to their linearity, roads and transmission lines have particularly pronounced fragmentation effects.
Noted conservation biologist Dr. Reed Noss writes; "Edge effects, once considered favorable for wildlife because many game species (e.g., White-tailed Deer, Eastern Cottontail) are edge-adapted, are now seen as one of the most harmful consequences of habitat fragmentation. Especially when it cuts through an intact forest, a road introduces a long swath of edge habitat. Forest edge is not a line, but rather a zone of influence that varies in width depending on what is measured. Changes in microclimate, increased blowdowns, and other impacts on vegetation may extend 2-3 tree-heights into a closed-canopy forest. Shade-intolerant plants, many of them exotic weeds, colonize the edge and gradually invade openings in the forest interior. Dan Janzen found weedy plant species invading treefall gaps in a Costa Rican forest up to 5 kilometers from the forest edge. Changes in vegetation structure and composition from edge effects can be more persistent than effects of clearcutting, from which at least some forest types will eventually recover, if left alone."

Dr. Noss goes on to say; "The net, cumulative effect of roads is to diminish the native diversity of ecosystems everywhere. Habitats in many different places around the world are invaded by virtually the same set of cosmopolitan weeds. Regions gradually are homogenized - they lose their "character". Every place of similar climate begins to look the same and most ecosystems are incomplete and missing the apex of the food chain. The end result is an impoverishment of global biodiversity." http://www.eco-action.org/dt/roads.html

Even narrow open corridors through forests, such as roads and rights-of-way, degrade the forest by creating unfavorable habitat for many species of migratory birds because of high rates of nest predation by ecotonal mesopredators such as foxes, skunks, and raccoons and nest parasitism by brown-headed cowbirds. Furthermore, the effects of such openings extend 300 feet into the forest from the edge. Interior forest, therefore, is defined as forest occurring more than 300f feet from an edge. Interior forest is required for successful breeding by species such as the black-throated blue warbler, the black-throated green warbler, the wood thrush, the ovenbird, and the scarlet tanager.

In addition to decimating interior forest habitat, roads produce edge effects conducive to the spread of alien invasive plants such as multiflora rose, Japanese stiltgrass, Russian olive, Japanese barberry, tree-of-heaven, and Japanese knotweed. Once established on roadsides, these alien invaders infiltrate adjacent habitats, further degrading our forests.
The construction of forest roads associated with gas wells and industrial windplants constitutes a relatively permanent change in habitat structure. Because the construction of forest roads involves a major investment, the incentive for long-term maintenance to provide future access is high. The longer such roads are in place, the greater the chance that forest degradation will occur.

There are already 2,600 miles of roads on our State Forests, as well as 600 miles of natural gas line rights-of-way, and 600 miles of electric utility rights-of-way. As a matter of fact, Pennsylvania's State Forests now have an average of 3.13 miles of roads and rights-of-way for every square mile. Instead of promoting energy extraction and the roads associated with such development, the DCNR should be designing a series of large roadless areas to safeguard our natural heritage.
Because natural resource agency lands are among the last remaining large blocks of unfragmented land in Pennsylvania, these lands are particularly in need of protection. Ironically, a publication produced by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (Moyer 2003) emphasizes the importance of preserving these last remaining large blocks of unfragmented habitat in the state.

Forest conservation, not energy extraction, should be the overarching purpose of our State Forests.

TO SEE THE ALLEGHENY RIDGE WINDPLANT, FROM TYRONE TAKE I-99 S TO THE EAST FREEDOM/ROARING SPRING EXIT. HANG A RIGHT AT THE FIRST LIGHT (DUNNING HIGHWAY). HANG ANOTHER RIGHT AT THE NEXT LIGHT (RT 164). DRIVE UP THE ALLEGHENY FRONT ALONG RT 164 AND YOU'LL SOON SEE THE INDUSTRIAL TURBINES. TAKE ANY OF THE WIDE GRAVEL ROADS THROUGH THE WINDPLANT. YOU DON'T NEED A HIGH-CLEARANCE VEHICLE.

[SoccerMom]

Speaking of "gargantuan industrial wind turbines", did anyone else see the wind turbine blades being transported along 550 in Warriors Mark yesterday? Wow, "Oversized Load" indeed. You truly cannot fathom their size until you see them in person, and I just saw the blades!

[My2Cents]

Speaking of "gargantuan industrial wind turbines", did anyone else see the wind turbine blades being transported along 550 in Warriors Mark yesterday? Wow, "Oversized Load" indeed. You truly cannot fathom their size until you see them in person, and I just saw the blades!

"550 in Warriors Mark !!??" I wonder where they were going ??

[Something to say]

Has anyone thought of organizing informational field trips to the closest site to Tyrone. Or....how about someone posting where the closest one is with directions so we can go out and take a lot ourselves.

Yeah, I've thought about it. Since the spring of 2006 I've spent more than 1,000 hours of my time on this issue, and, frankly, I'm exhausted. I'm not getting paid for my efforts while the Gamesa employees are. Gamesa takes out full-page ads in the Herald. Gamesa's PR guys get Gamesa press releases printed almost verbatim in the Herald.

I'll bet you are exhausted...it's like banging your head against a brick wall.

People see things through different lenses depending on their interests and level of knowledge. I value Blair County's natural heritage. I respect the results of the Blair County Natural Heritage Inventory, a scientific document that describes Ice Mountain as being unique and "of exceptional conservation value." I don't need any other information to make up my mind that Ice Mountain is not an appropriate place to consturct a shopping center, a housing development, a ski resort, a cathedral, a university, or an industrial windplant.

Well said Sandstone. Maybe we should have went to the teachers at Tyrone and asked them to give their students a crash course in ecology...they ( the students ) in turn might have been able to educate their parents....for apparently... they never learned about "the circle of life."



In contrast, Tyrone Borough Council Vice President Bill Latchford repeatedly states that he does not value our natural heritage, thus negating the Blair County Natural Heritage Inventory with an "I don't care" attitude. Many others share that attitude.

I really shouldn't comment on this statement...because I find it very difficult to say ANYTHING positive about this council member.



Mark Twain described seeing a beautiful woman walk down the street of his hometown and remarked on her beauty to the physician friend he was with, but the physician saw the black mole on her shoulder and was concerned about skin cancer. Without the knowledge of the harm that can come from certain things, black moles or fragmention of forests, you probably won't recognize the danger.


The aesthetics of our state appeal to me, however, I also understand ...in part...because of your tireless efforts ...the detrimental impact of the windfarm. I also respect the results of the Blair County Natural Heritage Inventory.




A trip to the Allegheny Ridge Wind Plant might not be instructive to those people without a solid ecogical knowledge base. Will people recognize the adverse effects of forest fragmentation? Many of these effects, such as loss of species diverstity and the invasion by alien invasive plants, take years to develop. In addition, unless someone knew what the thousands of acres occupied by the Allegheny Ridge Wind Farm looked like prior to the windplant, it would be hard to understand the radical changes in the landscape that have occurred: dozens of miles of new heavy-duty roadway, wide transmission line corridors, many acres cleared of vegetation for substations and accessory buildings, wide access roads roamed at all hours by ATVs and 4x4s looking for places to "rip and tear", as well as the presence of 45 (soon to be 90!) gargantuan industrial wind turbines that dominate the landscape over this 50 square-mile area (noise, aesthetic degradation, bird and bat kills, etc.).

Again...banging your head against a brick wall.



Below is a great Op-Ed piece by Gary Thornbloom, chair of the Moshannon Group of the Sierra Club, based in State College:

State Forest Energy Extraction Schemes endanger our Natural Heritage

The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources' decision to open 75,000 acres of Pennsylvania's State Forests to gas drilling combined with that agency's proposal to open 45,000 acres of State Forest land to industrial windplant development indicate that the department's decision-makers have a poor understanding of the adverse effects of forest fragmentation. It is impossible to construct miles of roadway associated with gas wells or miles of roads and transmission lines associated with industrial windplants and not cause severe forest fragmentation.

These adverse effects of forest fragmentation include reduced habitat area, habitat isolation and loss of species from an area, disruption of dispersal, increased edge effects and loss of core habitat, and the facilitation of alien invasive species. Due to their linearity, roads and transmission lines have particularly pronounced fragmentation effects.
Noted conservation biologist Dr. Reed Noss writes; "Edge effects, once considered favorable for wildlife because many game species (e.g., White-tailed Deer, Eastern Cottontail) are edge-adapted, are now seen as one of the most harmful consequences of habitat fragmentation. Especially when it cuts through an intact forest, a road introduces a long swath of edge habitat. Forest edge is not a line, but rather a zone of influence that varies in width depending on what is measured. Changes in microclimate, increased blowdowns, and other impacts on vegetation may extend 2-3 tree-heights into a closed-canopy forest. Shade-intolerant plants, many of them exotic weeds, colonize the edge and gradually invade openings in the forest interior. Dan Janzen found weedy plant species invading treefall gaps in a Costa Rican forest up to 5 kilometers from the forest edge. Changes in vegetation structure and composition from edge effects can be more persistent than effects of clearcutting, from which at least some forest types will eventually recover, if left alone."

Dr. Noss goes on to say; "The net, cumulative effect of roads is to diminish the native diversity of ecosystems everywhere. Habitats in many different places around the world are invaded by virtually the same set of cosmopolitan weeds. Regions gradually are homogenized - they lose their "character". Every place of similar climate begins to look the same and most ecosystems are incomplete and missing the apex of the food chain. The end result is an impoverishment of global biodiversity." http://www.eco-action.org/dt/roads.html

Even narrow open corridors through forests, such as roads and rights-of-way, degrade the forest by creating unfavorable habitat for many species of migratory birds because of high rates of nest predation by ecotonal mesopredators such as foxes, skunks, and raccoons and nest parasitism by brown-headed cowbirds. Furthermore, the effects of such openings extend 300 feet into the forest from the edge. Interior forest, therefore, is defined as forest occurring more than 300f feet from an edge. Interior forest is required for successful breeding by species such as the black-throated blue warbler, the black-throated green warbler, the wood thrush, the ovenbird, and the scarlet tanager.

In addition to decimating interior forest habitat, roads produce edge effects conducive to the spread of alien invasive plants such as multiflora rose, Japanese stiltgrass, Russian olive, Japanese barberry, tree-of-heaven, and Japanese knotweed. Once established on roadsides, these alien invaders infiltrate adjacent habitats, further degrading our forests.
The construction of forest roads associated with gas wells and industrial windplants constitutes a relatively permanent change in habitat structure. Because the construction of forest roads involves a major investment, the incentive for long-term maintenance to provide future access is high. The longer such roads are in place, the greater the chance that forest degradation will occur.

There are already 2,600 miles of roads on our State Forests, as well as 600 miles of natural gas line rights-of-way, and 600 miles of electric utility rights-of-way. As a matter of fact, Pennsylvania's State Forests now have an average of 3.13 miles of roads and rights-of-way for every square mile. Instead of promoting energy extraction and the roads associated with such development, the DCNR should be designing a series of large roadless areas to safeguard our natural heritage.
Because natural resource agency lands are among the last remaining large blocks of unfragmented land in Pennsylvania, these lands are particularly in need of protection. Ironically, a publication produced by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (Moyer 2003) emphasizes the importance of preserving these last remaining large blocks of unfragmented habitat in the state.

Forest conservation, not energy extraction, should be the overarching purpose of our State Forests.

AMEN

TO SEE THE ALLEGHENY RIDGE WINDPLANT, FROM TYRONE TAKE I-99 S TO THE EAST FREEDOM/ROARING SPRING EXIT. HANG A RIGHT AT THE FIRST LIGHT (DUNNING HIGHWAY). HANG ANOTHER RIGHT AT THE NEXT LIGHT (RT 164). DRIVE UP THE ALLEGHENY FRONT ALONG RT 164 AND YOU'LL SOON SEE THE INDUSTRIAL TURBINES. TAKE ANY OF THE WIDE GRAVEL ROADS THROUGH THE WINDPLANT. YOU DON'T NEED A HIGH-CLEARANCE VEHICLE.

Unfortunately...this council only sees dollars. It's both sad and pathetic. I am enclosing a url to a site that has nothing to do with windfarms, but with mans ignorance. It clearly shows us that our carelessness in making decisions ...in the end...costs us. I believe that down the road...this development is going to cost Tyrone ...in more ways than one. If only they ( council ) had the ingenuity to come up with other ways to generate revenue, without raping the land......


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/ocean ... 1594.flash

[Something to say]

Oh...and From the May 13th article...

Framel told council that he makes himself available to council and its residents, to be "proactive" and continue to discuss what the next steps are in the decision process.

I've read this particular article over and over again and each time it just makes my blood boil. I wonder why Gamesa Reps didn't make an attempt to meet with concerned residents at the Save Ice Mountain meeting. He really should make a retraction to that statement. It should read ... I am willing to meet with council...or anyone else....that is in favor of desecrating a parcel of land that is considered UNIQUE in conservation value.