The base of Wind 2 after felling Wednesday morning
A drone’s-eye view of Falmouth’s municipal wind turbine, Wind 1, after it was felled last Monday
An excavator removes a blade from Wind 1.
The tower and blade of Wind 2 after felling
The base of Wind 2 after felling Wednesday morning
A drone’s-eye view of Falmouth’s municipal wind turbine, Wind 1, after it was felled last Monday
An excavator removes a blade from Wind 1.
The tower and blade of Wind 2 after felling
The second of Falmouth’s two municipally owned wind turbines, Wind 2, was felled Wednesday morning, October 5 . Wind 1 came down last Monday. This is the closing chapter to years of conflict between clean energy advocates and the turbine’s abutters, who complained about noise, light flicker and the general stress of living near the machines.
To topple the 80-meter-tall turbine, the demolition company cut two holes at the base of the tower and attached a 50-ton shackle. A cable was then strung between the shackle and an excavator.
The cable was 125 percent longer than the height of the turbine, according to written documents provided by Atlantic Coast Dismantling. Workers then cut into the base of the turbine with a blowtorch, creating a “bird’s beak”-shaped hole with the tip of the “beak” in the planned fall direction. The excavator then pulled on the cable until the turbine fell over.
The turbines were installed at the wastewater treatment facility off Brick Kiln Road more than a decade ago. Wind 1 was shut down in September 2015 after the Falmouth Zoning Board of Appeals issued a cease and desist order. Wind 2 was shut down in June 2017 after a Barnstable County Superior Court judge upheld the ZBA’s decision deeming the turbines a nuisance.
The town first tried to sell the turbines, but when no buyers stepped forward, it opted to demolish them. In November 2019, Town Meeting voted to transfer $2.5 million for their disposition.
Prior to felling, hazardous materials (lubricating oil, transformer fluid and coolant) were drained from turbines into containment tanks, according to Atlantic Coast Dismantling and the project’s engineering firm Weston & Sampson. The metal blades and towers of the turbines are being cut into smaller pieces and hauled away to a recycling facility. Other demolition debris, such as concrete and fiberglass, will be thrown out.
(Close-up photos of the demolished turbines can be found on our website, capenews.net)
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Congratulation to the brave Falmouth people who fought the Falmouth and Mass state bureaucrats who tried to ruin their lives. Warms my heart to see them come down and that the courts sided with the regular folks. The only problem I have is that the people responsible for this travesty have not been held accountable.
Eleven lawsuits and appeals over seven years cost taxpayers and abutters legal fees, the cost of the wind turbines, and installation costs must be near 20 million.
Now the town wants to place onshore wind cables through residential locations of Falmouth. Four cable ducts with 800 megawatts of power in each duct equals 3200 megawatts of high voltage direct current power and the United States has no studies for high voltage direct current emissions.
The Canal Power Plant generated 680 megawatts and now the local politicians want
four times the output of a nuclear plant under ground through Falmouth?
Time to stop the insanity?
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