Town Council Scraps Windfarm Project After Turbine Collapse

March 23rd, 2009 by Dave Tyler

We told you recently about a wind turbine collapse in northern New York that has officials looking for a cause. Now comes word that a nearby town is scraping plans for a windfarm, in part because of concerns over that collapse.

The Plattsburgh Press-Republican reports that the Beekmantown Town Council killed a proposed farm with 13 turbines last week after a contentious meeting. Vermont-based Windhorse Power LLC had proposed the facility three years ago but the project had become tied up in lawsuits by residents. Council members voted 3-2 to to kill the project.

The March 6 collapse of a turbine at a windfarm in Altona became a point of contention at the March 17 council meeting. Beekmantown is about 15 miles southeast of Altona. Officials suspect faulty wiring to be the culprit in the Altona incident.

“Excuse my language, but that thing in Altona scared the s—- out of me,” the paper quoted Councilman Samuel Dyer as saying.

The town’s Zoning Board of Appeals approved the project in 2007 but since then residents have spent more than $70,000 in lawsuits against the town Zoning Board and Windhorse, the paper said.

Judging from the report, it seems the construction of the farm has created some real animosity in the town, and the Altona collapse may have just been the push that helped send the project over the edge. But turbine collapses are quite rare and despite some reports, have earthly explanations. Hopefully incidents of municipalities shooting down these projects because of one accident will be rare as well.

Photo credit: HDdod’s Flickr stream, via a Creative Commons License.









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