Reddington "cell tower"? Windmill?

[TJ aka Teej]

In the 'Trail Conditions' Wolfgang and Maynard say: "...it appears they are erecting a cell tower." Is this the start of the Windmill project?

 

[Whiteman]

Check this thread

There has been a lot of discussion about this potential wind power site. What do you think of it?

 

[TJ aka Teej]

What do you think of it?

http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?p=184064#post184064

"...let's put the windmills closer to the people. Line the Turnpike's median strip, picket them right up Route 1, top the buildings in Portland, Bangor, and Augusta, and lets set up one in the parking lot at Endless Energy."

 

[injektilo]

Why does a state that produces 40% more electricity than it uses need to use wind industry to generate more? This will not benefit the state of Maine... it only serves to benefit Endless Energy.

And before someone chimes in with the tired quote "...it's not as if this area is pristine...", neither was the Pemi Wilderness during it's history. The next time you're looking out from Franconia Ridge try to picture 20 or so wind towers on top of Owls Head and get back to me. There are some of us who look to what this region may be in the years to come. Clearcuts and logging roads vanish. Wind industry on top of Reddington is forever and will change the character of the region.

My 2 cents...

 

[funkyfreddy]

Why does a state that produces 40% more electricity than it uses need to use wind industry to generate more? This will not benefit the state of Maine... it only serves to benefit Endless Energy.

And before someone chimes in with the tired quote "...it's not as if this area is pristine...", neither was the Pemi Wilderness during it's history. The next time you're looking out from Franconia Ridge try to picture 20 or so wind towers on top of Owls Head and get back to me. There are some of us who look to what this region may be in the years to come. Clearcuts and logging roads vanish. Wind industry on top of Reddington is forever and will change the character of the region.

My 2 cents...

My feelings exactly! These towers would be visible from Katahdin and their powerful lights would destroy the night skies. This area of Maine around the Bigelows is beautiful, let's keep it the way it is.......

 

[dms]

Not to beat a dead horse, but as I said in the other thread related to this discussion, the transmission lines will not be underground, and the grid they will tie into is about 25-30 miles away. This project will also need a substantial infrastructure to service the towers. I understand the need for alternative energy sources, but I just don't think this is the place for this type of development.

 

[Stan]

Unfortunately, many of the best wind power locations in the Northeast are either on pristine shorelines or pristine ridgelines.

The best bang for the buck, before sacrificing shorelines and ridgelines, is conservation, distributed generation/cogeneration and on-site renewables.

Without public grants and tax incentives neither the Reddington nor Nantucket Sound projects would go anywhere. Apply these resources to the efforts I list and you could displace more energy than these projects will generate.

 

[dms]

Stan, you are right on the "money", I am sure most of it being spent on the test towers is not coming out of the owners pockets, it's grant money.

 

[Tom Rankin]

Clearcuts and logging roads vanish. Wind industry on top of Reddington is forever and will change the character of the region.

Why do you think some things will disappear, and others will not?

The people who built the Catskill Mountian House probably thought it would stand 'forever' as well. It had over 1,000 rooms. Now there is just a field there, and the field is slowly being claimed back by the forest....

 

[injektilo]

Why do you think some things will disappear, and others will not?

The people who built the Catskill Mountian House probably thought it would stand 'forever' as well. It had over 1,000 rooms. Now there is just a field there, and the field is slowly being claimed back by the forest....

It's my understanding the the State of New York burned the remains of the Catskill Mountain House... is this correct? As impressive as a 1,000 room hotel made of WOOD sounds, the scale of it is small compared to the scale of thirty 400 foot high STEEL towers.

 

[Dave Lang]

Let's compare 30 towers to a West Virginia strip mine that has it coal shipped to Cincinnati, to be burned conventionally, and the results. 30 towers and all the necessary infrastrastructure would undoubtedly be a mess. A W.V. strip mine with its mine acid poisoning sreams, certainly a mess. The coal burned in Cincinnati, would add CO2 to the atmosphere, and don't forget the acid rain that would be carried to the Adirondacks and Whites. Pick your poison.

 

[TJ aka Teej]

Let's compare 30 towers to a West Virginia strip mine

Let's compare specious argument to sophistic reasoning, Dave.

 

[injektilo]

Let's compare 30 towers to a West Virginia strip mine that has it coal shipped to Cincinnati, to be burned conventionally, and the results. 30 towers and all the necessary infrastrastructure would undoubtedly be a mess. A W.V. strip mine with its mine acid poisoning sreams, certainly a mess. The coal burned in Cincinnati, would add CO2 to the atmosphere, and don't forget the acid rain that would be carried to the Adirondacks and Whites. Pick your poison.

If the towers are built do you think an equivalent amount of conventional electricty production will cease? It won't... West Virginia mining will proceed as scheduled, coal will be burned in Cincinnati, and a wild place in Maine will be destroyed.

This is a matter of location... the wrong location. Thirty towers on Redington are not going to solve our energy problems. In my opinion, the loss of the ridgeline far outweighs the miniscule amount of energy these things will generate.

I'm sure some will disagree.

 

[Dave Lang]

You happen to be correct. 30 towers in Maine won't be solving any problems. There are better locations to put wind projects. I agree. But as was suggested, I was tossing out some valid debate material. As power demands grow, the power has to come from somewhere. Electricity is a commodity. It is completly fungible. A kilowatt hour of power generated by by wind, hydro, coal, or nuke looks the same. All that is different, is the downstream trail of entropy. Unfortunately, the best places to put wind facilities are where the wind blows. The energy is proportional to the velocity cubed. Again, I am with you on messing up Redington, but we are left with having to pick our poison.

Conservation has a nice ring. Doncha agree?

 

[funkyfreddy]

You happen to be correct. 30 towers in Maine won't be solving any problems. There are better locations to put wind projects. I agree. But as was suggested, I was tossing out some valid debate material.

Why not let the corporate profiteers do their own work instead of arguing for them? The idea of sacrificing this region of Maine for so little disgusts me, reminds me of a quote by Ed Abbey - "The industrial corporation is the natural enemy of nature".

The value of this area is far beyond being measured in dollars and kilowatts, IMHO.

 

[jrichard]

Conservation has a nice ring. Doncha agree?

Personal virtue. (couldn't help myself)

It isn't the corporate powers that are foisting this upon ourselves. If there was no market for energy, no one would be blasting mountaintops or building windmills to produce it.

We want our toys, we like our lifestyle. That energy has to come from somewhere.

My feeling is that we can't fix this (conservation) without structural changes which will require federal regulations. It won't happen from the ground up until there's more immediate incentive to fix it.

 

[Jeff-B]

There has been a lot of discussion about this potential wind power site. What do you think of it?

This is certainly a touchy subject for this VFTT website and history shows banned members and closed threads!

I have voiced my opinion on windpower before and will not try to defend this Redington project for fears as mentioned above.
I am not so sure I would support this project anyway until the environmental impact study was complete.

I do live on Cape Cod and favor the Nantucket Wind Farm, but that project is going through so much legal struggle that I have just about given up hope.
I see the anti-campaign SOS Save Our Sound and I say, "save our planet!"

I would expect the same local feedback for the Redington project.

NIMBY's are the primary reason that Windfarm projects fail to be constructed...

 

[David Metsky]

I have voiced my opinion on windpower before and will not try to defend this Redington project for fears as mentioned above.

No one has ever been warned or banned from this site for expressing their opinion in a reasonable manner. If you have any questions about moderation on this site feel free to ask in email or IM to the moderators. Please don't use this thread or any other thread for that.

I personally have no problems with the Redington wind farm. The area already has ski areas, roads, logging, and military base. I don't see the towers or additional roads as detracting excessively from the character of the area. I've been through this discussion here before and didn't feel the need to go through it all again.

-dave-

 

[injektilo]

I personally have no problems with the Redington wind farm. The area already has ski areas, roads, logging, and military base.

-dave-

All you mention above, with the exception of a military base, exist in the WMNF... Would you support towers on a high ridgeline there? I fail to see how any of the above justify tearing up Redington.

Again, just my opinion...

 

[David Metsky]

All you mention above, with the exception of a military base, exist in the WMNF... Would you support towers on a high ridgeline there? I fail to see how any of the above justify tearing up Redington.

It depends, I'd have to see the proposal. It would depend on the placement, I suppose. I'd be against placing any windfarms on tundra, so that would eliminate a lot of the high ridges in the Whites.

From the summit of Lafayette I can see ski areas, buildings, highways (heck, you can hear cars up there), cell towers, clear cuts, watch military aircraft training, etc. Personally, I don't think that wind towers would upset me if I felt that they were doing good.

I'm in favor of lots of conservation as well, but I think that the best way to solve the country's energy needs involves compromise by all parties. Simply telling the mid-west to stop using coal powered power plants while we use hydro from Canada (we still do, don't we?) that has caused lots of localized environmental damage doesn't feel fair to me. I want the Cape Wind project to proceed as well, and I think projects like Redington would support that.

I'm going to bow out of this conversation for now.

-dave-