Prposed windmill farm off of nantucket..what are your thoughts

[Mr. Sandman]

I am dead against it for a number of reasons.

1) The cost will be big-dig like.
2) the upkeep will be mind boggleing
3) the cost/kilowatt will be out of sight. (they refuse to tell you what the cost per kilowatt will be...if they did I think it would collapse upon itself
4) it will not produce that much energy about 2% of MA demand
5) ugly
6) noisey
7) looks like a nightmare to maintain
8) I think this is based more on politics then energy needs
9) huge oppertunity for fraud and abuse
10) Most of the people pushing it have little knowledge of energy systems.

being a geek engineer, and having done research on wave energy devices in the 1970s-and early '80s, I can tell you the energy denisty of solar based energy generation devices (including wind mills) are very low and you need to cover very large areas with very expensive equipment to generate enough energy. This type of thing is best suited for small remote outposts where the cost per kilowatt can be justified. Most wind mill's don't last too long in the marine climate either. NASA had one on BI in the 1970's and they ended up removing it and putting in a bigger deisel generator. They had a serious fatigue problem in the blades and were concerned about losing one. Further it was noisey as hell. (more so the the generator....)
The best thing about windmills are the fed tax breaks....that is about it.

Just my opinion but if you ever get the chance you should vote NO.

[JohnR]

I've been pretty much against it for a while... I just don't think it's a good spot for several reasons...

If they want a good location, how about one of those mountain hideaways where the people write this stuff up. Or that farm they bought halfway between the office and the ski slope (in the alternative energy Excursion).

I'm all for using alternative energy and seeing what ways they can use to improve alternative energy

Curious to see how the Hull Gut one is working out...

[nor-easter]

For all the above reasons, I would vote "NO"!

[Jimbo]

Don't forget a danger to navigators (probably both air and sea), too. If you look at the proposed spots where they want to put them, there's really no place that's not going to be a hinderance for fishermen or an eyesore for locals and tourists alike who get out on the water or probably could see it from shore.
I read some of the advertisements for this project when I was up this summer and it looked like "big money" somewhere was paying off some notable personalities to put words in their mouth so the general public will buy into the idea. Like others, I'm all for taking advantage of the forces nature to save the Ozone layer a little, but I've really not read much that convinces me this will work, let alone after it fails, if there's any guarantee the people pushing it won't pack up and leave their worthless scrap in Buzzards Bay or Nantucket Sound for the taxpayers to clean up.
(and I don't want to hear anybody suggesting taking this monstrosity down to Jersey, either)