This is not an issue about wind turbines, our ecology, O & M, cost or even the sales pitch (I doubt that those involved were really that gullible). This is an issue about poor Project Quality Assurance and Project Management if indeed there isn't Maintenance Plan In place when the warranty does expire that addresses O & M of aging equipment and parts. That plan would also address logistics. If this plan doesn't exist, heads should roll, because as you pointed out, it will be costly.

This is happening all over the country to small cities and towns. Portsmouth is not alone.Green energy is not a sacred cow any more. There has been a massive shift in public opinion over the cost of the commercial wind turbines. Taxpayers like green energy in principle but not paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to maintain a single three years old turbine.

An announcement will probably be made Monday night about the turbine.

Taxpayers and voters are still reeling from the global financial crisis. Local politicians know well enough to avoid hot buttons like tax hikes but how will the town pay for repairs on a 3 million dollar wind turbine mistake.

Many towns in Massachusetts and Rhode Island got representatives from the Town of Portsmouth acting as advocates for commercial wind. Every time a city or town made a proposal to build a commercial wind turbine the representatives of the Town of Portsmouth were there to give a ,"puff," story about commercial wind. These advocates gave only the positive side of commercial wind power to other cities and towns. It's time for those same advocates to get up to the plate and tell it like it really is. A failure - Let's hear what they have to say Monday night ......

Need more data before I'm convinced it's a total failure. What benefits are realized by the community? Are there any energy cost savings? How long are the repairs generally good for? What are the environmental benefits?

Best bet is to try to sell the turbine as is to a private contractor and lease the land for twenty years to that contractor or buy a smaller kilowatt turbine with a good track record. I don't think cities and towns can afford to run large megawatt turbines. The town would have been better off with a 660 Kilowatt turbine like the Abbey.

The problem now is that wind contractors will try to sell the town a fully rebuilt megawatt turbine option which generally cost less than half of a new wind turbine .They'll tell you the rebuilt turbine performs like a new turbine. You'll be buying the Brooklyn Bridge again and again.

These options will probably be brought up Monday night at 7 PM .

http://sos.ri.gov/documents/publicinfo/omdocs/notices/4204/2012/127838.pdf

Old Business - Monday night July 9.2012 7 PM

Item # 6. Request to Receive an Update on the Wind Turbine Generators Status and Effect Possible Action

Private Enterprise is the only viable option for these projects period. The government cannot and never has run a single thing that private Enterprise does, that has ever been successful.

When done on small scales like this, you will never succeed in anything other than wasting taxpayer’s money. Give it to the intelligent people in the private sector. If they are sold a bill of goods, then they take the risk not the taxpayers. None of this should be subsidized either, it is not proven viable if it cannot stand on its own. Why do people not get that? Why do people think it is ok to risk taxpayer money when private businesses and investors won’t?

The recent push to form the EBEC, with statements made by Supporters and members of it that said the road was paved with "GOLD" putting up turbines. But the Study on the Tiverton placement where they want the farm has not even been concluded yet. The study period is concluded in August this year by their own web site. Yet they wanted to be formed before they even know if the area is viable! This Portsmouth turbine would be part of EBEC, screwing the entire Easy Bay equally instead of just Portsmouth with the bills the taxpayers there will be stuck with in the end. No Doubt about it in my mind.

If a company sold a consumer something like this Portsmouth Turbine, they would be in jail for fraud. If these people, who keep supporting all this, want to invest their money, go ahead, but leave the taxpayers out of it.

WHO WANTS TO BUY ANOTHER WIND TURBINE ?
The brain of the wind turbine is the nacelle containing the turbine's gears and generator.

We'll all soon know the analysis of cost, danger and benefits of wind energy.

Commercial wind turbine salesmen sit in a room with phones and call all day, finding the next sucker.

They look for poor towns with no zoning laws and make promises of big bucks and clean energy. The only ones making the money are them.

What often happens is the companies that start the projects disappear, AKA AAER -Portsmouth, selling the leases to another company, and so on and so on.

None of these companies have accountability, or financial track records for that matter, and the townsfolk are left holding the bag of doo doo.

Wait til we get the astro turf for the football field near the wind tower.... this group will be going bonkers!

It's official - catastrophic gearbox failure on an average megawatt class wind turbine costs somewhere between $225,000 and $300,000 to repair !

"The reality is if we found it earlier, we would still be standing here telling you you have a gearbox failure," says Lumus rep. "We were hoping it was a sensor issue; it wasn't." "It's been a national trend of gearbox failures," says Lumus rep.
"It's been telling us something is wrong for a long time," Pedro says about the turbine.
How much dammage did they do every time they pushed that reset button? I still find it funny that they were talking about buying a gearbox last month but claimed the geargox was fine. I said last month you don't buy a gearbox unless you need one. this is the information blackout I was talking about the last time it was broken and was tols I was crazy it was just a $2.00 sensor. Guess i was right.

The reset button was being pushed by a represetative of the town who did not want any down time on the turbine.The representative for the town did not want to wait 1 to 2 hours for the Lumus people to show up. There was a story in a local paper about the town representative pushing the reset button on a six to eight hour intervals .

The Lumus people should have been called every time the turbine broke down -that's why they get the big bucks for the maintanance contract . If this was being run by a private company they would have called in a third party long ago ! Towns can't run megawatt turbines ....

New technology is difficult to trust. Early adopters usually pay the price in the form of real world R&D because the start-up companies in new technology don't have the money to invest in it, or don't want to invest in it because of the desire to generate revenue. Sometimes it is better to remain on the sidelines until the bugs are worked out.

It would seem quite obvious tht Robert, Bill and others are to be listened to on the affairs of the turbine, both have been talking about these roblem for a long time now and as it turns out were and are spot on. It amazed me how these people would post links to actual reports, andfacts that you can only say the powers that be ignored. Either they did it for political reasons or were to embarrassed to admit they were wrong.

Either way it has turned into a travesty for taxpayers in Portsmouth. Have to agree also that when some said this was the tip of the iceberg, concerning long term cost, that the could never seem to get a straight answer to from the powers that be, because those powers want he cost hidden from the public.

Try mislead share holders or investors in a private company, you will find that as we have seen over the last few decades, people go to jail for that. I believe it is called fraud!

As we work to build the economy the legislature works to destroy it. What are we going to do about the Governors whacky plan to give two more bridges to the RITBA ? It's time for action before the wiz kid kills the East Bays economy . How can they expect Newport and Bristol Counties to accomplish all of the transportation improvements needed using revenue from the bridge tolls? It's also supposed to pay for bridge maintenance . This is a bad plan that had no thought other than screwing us as has happens with Education funding, and general revenue sharing . Is it time to revolt yet?

Tom Uva of the Narragansett Bay Commission said it best (i.e. manager of the three turbines about to be turned on in the old shipyard). In a Hummel interview, he pointed out that the high quality turbines can only be purchased for mega windfarms. GE won't even talk to you if it's not a gazillion watts (emphasis added).

So the little guys are left to do business with overseas firms with poor O&M track records.

When Ken Marshall (Bristol Town Council President) bragged about the EBEC money pit being his idea, he left out that minor taxpayer O&M problem.

How much money would you place on the future of this place for your kids and grandkids? Can you put a dollar amount on that? The money is there if needed, don't blow smoke when there is no fire!

For the second year in a row Rhode Island was voted by CNBC as having the worst business climate of all the fifty states. Way to go, Keith!

Chmn,
Way to go, State Legislature. They are the ones who ran the State into the ground. Our Business Climate is directly related to that bodies actions for several decades .
On New Year's Day 1991, Bruce Sundlun announced that 45 banks and credit unions would be closed indefinitely because of the collapse of the Rhode Island Share and Deposit Indemnity Corporation, the private fund that insured them.closing. This State is a cesspool corruption and the head turd couldn't run a shoe shine stand. Guess who is also to blame?

Private enterprise and NO TOLLS is the path to follow, will we let the state take the indy park because a use has been found for it, hello, wake up, look at the deal were getting on the bridge!!

For get the stupid windmill. We need to move on to the artificial turf for the high school football field... a cool three million bucks.

Two for one special on gearboxs today only ! These gearboxs have a ten to one chance of another failure -what a deal ! The project is a total failure right now. The representatives of Portsmouth have got to think about Jill and Joe taxpayer. I just watched the town council meeting and they are talking about buying cheap parts to fix the turbine just to get it going ! They bought a cheap wind turbine and now repair it with fourth generation parts ? Small towns shouldn't be in the industrial wind turbine business !

During the meeting they kept saying "due diligence " and talking between $100,00.00 to 1 1/2 half million?
Due diligence is the process of gathering information to assist your towns finances through a decision making process. This is why municipal groups should steer clear of industrial projects !

http://www.theportsmouthrecord.com/TownCouncil/ptc.7.9.12.Flash.htm

6. Request to Receive an Update on the Wind Turbine Generator’s Status and Effect Possible Action - D. Faucher

Like any other equipment owned and managed by a business, there must be a preventive and predictive maintenance program established and implemented. This is further supported by a contingency plan. Was there a lesson learned or best practice investigation conducted, that would offer insight from states and countries who have such turbines or even wind farms? In the Town of Bristol, there was a lone wind turbine, privately designed, erected and maintained by Joe Mello. He not only was a forward thinker, who did consider and implement the topics noted: best practices, lessons learned, preventive/predictive maintenance and contingency programs, he did it all on his own dime. The Mello Wind System operated for over 20 years supplying clean energy to his own home and the Grid, using this methodology. So before we start shooting down clean energy, should we ask how can a Renaissance Man manage it for over 20 years and a Town is challenged after only 3 years?

NO TOLLS

Could the rotor be de-coupled from the gearbox in the meantime? Having it spin and not generate power is better than the constant reminder that it's broken.
I was a proponent for the turbine, but now it's sickening to see it as a daily reminder of our mistake.

Do we lack the facts to define the problem and identify the solution?
One option is to spread cost & sell the Portsmouth Wind Turbine to the RI General Assembly EDC East Bay Energy consortium, which is still awaiting approval?
The illusion of making a profit is based on a voodoo math and magical thinking of subsidies and net metering. The rate and tax payers have been already subjected to hidden mandate / taxes to realize such illusion. Purchasing a 1.5 megawatt model Wind Turbine is like moving from a 21 ft to a 100 ft boat. Like a boat if you must ask how much to own & operate you cannot afford to own it. The wind is not free after all! We must realign expectations - learn the facts about Renewable green energy. Yes, this is a lifetime journey and not a Saturday afternoon at the local beach. We must not dis-guard our existing means of energy conversion and distribution just yet. http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/renewables/a-skeptic-looks-at-alternative-energy/0 Perhaps in two or more model changes allowing technology insertions can mature the Wind Turbine technology. What we are experiencing is one of the lessons learned by the European premature deployment of wind turbines.

What if a disruptive technology for energy conversion and distribution came out of the R&D labs. Its subsequent deployment would still be a journey we must travel.
The renewal of the present energy conversion and distribution system is critically lacking and requires priority.

Wind technology has been around for well over thirty years. Look at all the wind farms in the Southwest and the left coast. These are very large and guess what,they don't work. At any given time one third to one half of the turbines are not working. They say it's only for maintenance but in reality it's no parts available for repair so they sit idle not generating and they can sit for many weeks or months at a time waiting for parts. So who is making the money with these wind systems? It's the companies who makes the repair parts,rebuilds parts and installs the parts. The people who invest in these farms at the start make a huge return on the investment and after a few years sell their shares before the farm starts on a down ward spiral with broken turbines. The bigger the turbine the more likely to fail and it won't get much better as the technology used to build it has not changed. So the town of Portsmouth is stuck with a hugh bill to keep it or dismantle it. More good money thrown after bad or end it now. That is what the town now has to decide and I hope the people in Tiverton can see this happening and stop the so called wind farm in that town before it comes around and bites them in the butt..

Suggestion 1. Remove the blade and rent the top of the tower to communication companies for cell phone antenna’s on it. At least that would be some guaranteed income ;-}

Suggestion 2. Install meteorological devices to aid fishermen with up to date reports transmitted 24 hours a day to aid those hard taxpayers.

I am sure many others can come up with viable idea’s also. May take longer to recover wasted funds, but it is at least a start.

Burn it and collect the insurance .

I just re-read everything above and the revenues generated by the turbine are not mentioned anywhere in the original article, nor in all the posts that follow. I'll forgive the commenters above, but Bill C. the article writer cannot be excused for presenting only half the story.

So I'll ask the question outright: What revenues are generated each year via the operation of the turbine? If the town receives no revenues, to what extent are its electricity expenses reduced by operating the turbine? Without presenting this info, all other conclusions and comments are based on half the picture.

To illustrate the point, if the revenues generated by operating the turbine are $6 Billion a year (and I know it's not that amount), then "$600,000 to replace a gearbox" would be a pittance. At the other end of the scale, if the turbine generates or saves the town $6 a year (and I know it's also not that amount), then "$600,000 to replace a gearbox" would not be justified.

With the revenue or cost-reduction number absent from the analysis, there's no point in discussing it. Sounds to me, Bill, like you just want to get rid of the thing, regardless of what the data may tell you.

The last figure I saw was $78,000 had been generated for the town before it went down. I do not know the time period it took to make this amount or if it was for one year or the total but it sure is NOT much of a return if that is the amount.

I'm with the corkscrew water slide idea. How cool is that! There could even be a 200MPH speed section which would generate poop in the water that can go into a community garden at the base. Another idea is to bolt up a big old Army diesel engine to that bad boy and promote "public fan" feature for the residents who can then be taxed for the fuel! The posssibilties are endless...

Thats the lesson here... THIS IS RHODE ISLAND, YOU SHOULD JUST LEAVE IT ALONE!

Please see the news report below regarding a gearbox failure in Portsmouth, RI that will cost $1.5 million to fix (see below and here: Catastrophic Gearbox Failure in Portsmouth: It's Official). 

The manufacturer's rep absolves the company of all responsibility saying that such failures are part of a "national trend." 

His defense?  "Hey, don't blame our company; they're ALL going bad!  It's a national (actually global) trend!"

The Portsmouth wind turbine was already barely breaking even -- if that -- owing to the fact that production has not lived up to expectations and the net metering rates -- the sales price for electricity -- that it can achieve are sharply lower than the rates that were in effect when it erected the wind turbine. 

The projected profitability in the "pro forma financial projections" for the wind turbine proposal in Portsmouth, RI -- like virtually every municipal, or "community wind energy," proposal in Massachusetts and elsewhere (including the recent world record for unbridled optimism in Nantucket, MA) -- was completely dependent upon four highly dubious key assumptions:

1. The output of the wind turbine would be unrealistically high, relative to other comparable installations;
2. The wind turbine would require minimal repairs over its "20 year" life;
3. The heavily subsidized -- and inflated -- net metering rates at which the town could sell its production would continue forever;
4. The net metering rate would rise steadily, and predictably, over time -- and never decline -- because the price of electricity would rise forever.

The reality is that:

1. Production of the wind turbine has not met the optimistic projections of the "pro forma" -- because it never does (estimates are always unrealistically high...."to make the numbers work";

2. The wind turbine, which is just past its two-year warranty period, will now require a $1.5 million overhaul -- and will require additional periodic overhauls, every few years, for as long as it is in operation;

3. The net metering rate is sensitive to market rates for electricity, which, in turn, are sensitive to the price of natural gas (the price of which has declined from over $12 per billion btu to about $2.50 per billion btu -- because there is a 10 year glut in supply); additionally, the continued availability of the program is not assured as this is a subsidized rate provided by the legislature -- and not a market rate;

4. The net metering rate has declined substantially over a short period of time -- and seems unlikely to rise because of the overhanging supply of natural gas (which sets the price of electricity at the margin) -- in defiance of the predictions of the typical "conservative" pro forma financial statements for such projects, which typically include an "energy price escalator" of 2% to 3% per annum.

The town won the case. It was positive for Portsmouth. Here is some other scoop :
The town officials have already refereed to a company called Jahnel-Kestermann Getriebewerke GmbH . The slang name for this company is Jake. They will provide the gearbox from a Fuhrländer PWE 1570 turbine (Fuhrländer 1.5 MW) . The warranty on the gearbox is the same as the original turbine purchased by the Town of Portsmouth.The project is a failure and the chance of another gear box failure is ten to one according to the wind turbine contractors at the meeting.
Here is the positive url about Portsmouths wind turbine rate case :

http://www.eastbayri.com/news/2011/oct/21/portsmouth-wins-wind-turbine-rate-case/

http://www.jake-gear.com/

Here's just a thought but I think it would be wise of the town to contact the makers of the abbey turbine and see if the have a solution and or a nacelle to fit the high school turbine seeing how they seem to be pretty efficient. I would also think the town may want to contact the abbey to see who services their turbine and find out if the town could work out a contract with them. I agree with the statement cheaper isnt alway's better. I don't think the town can stick a fork in this project yet. There are some successful turbines around it would be wise to find out more information from those who own and service them.

Town council failed to ask the big question! At the Town Council meeting Monday night the wind turbine maintenance representative never mentioned how many times the town reset the wind turbine without calling them. The Town Council was quick to ask why the turbine wasn't shut down last February. The Town Council says it is going to due "Due Diligence" and only look forward! The big question is: Why was the turbine being reset on a 6 to 8 hour schedule by a town employee without calling the maintenance company and is that going to happen again in the future? Does the maintenance company know the town was resetting the turbine without calling them? Why wasn't this question asked?

Gearbox explanations :
http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy12osti/53084.pdf

Third party maintenance company ;
http://windturbine-gearboxrepair.com/wind-turbine-gearbox-services-gearbox-repair.html

Types of gearbox drives :
http://css.engineering.uiowa.edu/~ie_155/Lecture/Gearbox.pdf

Taxpayers should demand a thorough probe by a special investigation team from the Rhode Island AGs office. The public needs to look at renewable energy schemes on behalf of all taxpayers. A coordination between federal and state enforcement agencies may be most effective at the earliest possible stage of a joint investigation. This breakdown is about millions of taxpayer dollars not a few dollar repair that will cost a few bucks as it was down played a few months ago. Why back a few months ago wasn't the public told the gearbox had issues! The turbine is in the national news for the past few days - It's going to be another Studio 38 situation again in Rhode Island except now -Industrial Wind Turbines

http://www.necn.com/07/13/12/Portsmouth-facing-500000-bill-to-fix-tur/landing_newengland.html?&apID=a1dad6f1e2e14597ab22b2c4d0e45e09

They offered the town a teo for one special on the gear box what does that say. Our gearbox fail rate is so high you better buy two? Does not give you alot of confidence in the long term usefulness of this repair. The town needs to look at the person who is responsable at least in part for this early failure the one who kept pushing the rest button and reporting to town that the turbine is fine and working properly. Many mistakes were made before buying this turbine but many more were made after purchase

The reset button was being pushed because the town officials wanted to keep up the production of the wind turbine up as high as they could to justify the turbine to the residents and surrounding communities . If the town offical called the maintenance company it would be several hours of down time as they have to drive from Woburn,Massachusetts. I don't think the maintenance company knows about the resets being done two or three times a day.

Also if you noted at the Town Council Meeting it was mentioned that the number 666 was showing up on the computer display . In computers they have communication ports from one computer to another . I would be asking if any town officials had remote access to the wind turbine through another computer away from the turbine through the data port of 666 on the computers. The turbine could have been reset through the communications data port of 666.

The Town Council made a point of only looking forward at the point .Do you think any of the Town Council members were aware of how many times in the past the reset button was pushed - This is probably why they don't want to talk about it .

If the reset issue isn't addressed about how many times the button was pushed it's going to happen again and again after the turbine gets repaired . This is why politicians,municipal employees and appointed officials should not be in control of multimillion dollar machines

Lets say your car had a problem and the check engine light came on. So you take your car to a garage, and the mechanic decides to disconnect the check engine light. A few months later clunk .. clunk .. clunk .. boom.

Do you blame the Auto Industry, General Motors, or the Mechanic ?

It's surprising with such obvious and well documented mis-manegement / mis-maintenance, how many people want to blame the turbine company, or the wind power industry in general

If you can give a 2 for one special and still make a profit. How come they do not cost have the price? Does the company make over a 100% profit when it is no doing this magnanimous incentive to empty the warehouse of all of their known faulty gear boxes, so they do not have to keep paying inventory tax on something that is eventually not going to fool the smart people who can see the con game in this.

Also why would you replace a known badly engineered gear box, with the exact same model? You have to assume it is going to break down at about the life of the first one. Not to mention the expense of labor to replace them that I assume is not included in the sale of the gear box? Great make work plan though and job security by the company, almost as good as a State job.

I don't believe the Town Council understands how many times the wind turbine was reset by town employees .The council doesn't understand the "666" on the computer main frame.This is a data port for remote access. The 666 is the remote data port to get into the turbines computer. I don't think the maintenance company understands they were not called so the town could keep up the production of the turbine rather than have the maintenance people show up in a few hours and review the problem .

Check out this story in the Jamestown Press and you'll get a view of the big picture :
It's a story about when the officials from Jamestown reviewed the wind turbine and the reset button had also broken at that point .

http://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/03/15/jamestown-brass-takes-tour-of-portsmouths-wind-turbine/

The Town of Portsmouth is 100% at fault for what happened. The maintenance company reresentative at the Town Council stood up for themselves and never mentioned the total number of resets.I don't think the maintenance company was aware of all the resets .The Town Council owes an apology to the maintenance company . The maintenance company came when they were called and always repaired the turbine and performed the maintenance.

The big question is why wasn't the actions of the town employee brought up at the council meeting . If the maintenance company knew of all the total shut downs they would have stepped up the oil change schedule or taken some kind of a maintenance action .If the town made a choice to keep pushing a reset button it's the town's fault.

If the red light or oil change indicator on your dash board comes on you would bring the car in to have it looked at - The town failed the citizens of Portsmouth by trying to build a fancy production rate over 100 % .The drove the turbine like a slave !

Yes -Repeating steps 1-4 caused catastrophic failure

Sorry, steps 2-4 were repeated. I dont know Gary personally, and I'm not attacking him. I would like to know what qualification he had to be the button guy and, even more, what training he received to be in charge of a multi-million dollar piece of machinery.

There is no "one" individual at fault for what happened to the turbine. There were many news reports about the amount of times the turbine was being reset and the town council members must read the news. All the town employees,politicians and news media were well aware of the ongoing problems - I still think the maintpeople are owed an apology for the way they were treated at the Town Council enance meeting .
This whole project is a multi million dollar mistake . I think at least one town representative could have gotten up at the Town Council meeting and spoke in defense of the maintance contractor instead of letting them get thrown under the bus .

The town is looking for a scape goat at this point and they need to take a hard look at how many times the town reset the wind turbine and made many if not hundreds of choices not to call the maintenance company because the wanted numbers over 100 % on the perfomance of the turbine . AKA - The town drove the turbine into the ground -they drove it until the wheels fell off !

The Town Council was told that the number 666 was on the computer diplay.This tells me that 666 is the communication data port used to reset the wind turbine from the remote location.The Town Council is aware of the 666 discused at the Town Council meeting but all of the town council made a choice not to ask anyone including the maintance company what it meant. The Town Council made the choice to only look forward and not look back -now you know why .

The Linux operations systems in computers was originally developed as a free operating system. If the turbine uses the Linux operating system and 666 was the comunications port for the reset button there is a history in the wind turbines main frame computer . Most operating systems today hold the history of what goes on inside the computer. There are probably students at the high school that could extract all the information from the wind turbine computer.

Probably make a good school project to have one of the computer classes look into the turbine from the same remote local port used by the town employees and find all the shut down data - If anyone knows the data address of the wind turbine they could put it on line right here .

I can't help but notice that members of the Portsmouth EDC who were so vocal in defending the turbine and the EBEC in the past are strangely silent now.

OMG: I have been watching this thread for the past few days and it has been ......... "entertaining"....?? But I think NOT informative. Purely agenda driven.

I have NO IDEA what the frequent posters here are taliking about. Just sayin...

I think maybe I'll have a Martini and that will clear things up.

Drove past Hodges Badge today . That wind turbine is working . It seems the private turbines on the Island are doing OK. The one in the Industrial park in Middle town has been running for years no problems.

What say we get some guys from Trembley's and go look for the guy who sold this lemon ? A good ass kicking might make ya feel better.
Disclaimer Just Another Ron Acres Taxpayer , just Kidding

Dave Gagnon, president and CEO of AAER retired after filing bankruptcy in 2009. Dave got a giant retirement package and is living large in Bromont Canada. Next Windtec, owed by American Superconductor Corp. with headquarters in Fort Devens, MA, tooh over the warranty on the Portsmouth wind turbine . There is a question if AAER or Windtec had trained town employees on the operations of the turbine . Everybody made money on this turbine except the owners : The Town of Portsmouth end up last or the losers on this ongoin bunco scheme

I have an idea..... let's buy a GE or a Siemens? Wait, that is too obvious. Follow the money and find out what really happened. The original company was shaky to begin with so after that failure we will do what town governments always do in situations like this: throw more of our money at it!

State Wide Portsmouth Wind Turbine Blow Back!
http://news.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/2012/07/portsmouth-wind.html?plckOnPage=3&plckItemsPerPage=10&plckSort=TimeStampDescending#pluck_comments_list

Wow that makes them $60,000 dollars in the hole if the article numbers are correct. Not to mention they still have to pay the bond off. Seems a lot of people in Portsmouth are owed an apology in my opinion and many on here can say, "I told you so", exept of course the supporters who will have a hard time explaining this golden road debacle. Not as bad as Studio 38, but same kind of thinking involved or lack there of. In my Opinion

Politicians need to break their emotional ties to this turbine. Why would someone get emotionally tied to an inanimate object like an industrial wind turbine? Many think their ego has to be satisfied somehow.

Since before 2004 if an individual set building an industrial wind turbine in his or her hometown as their single biggest goal in life we cab understand what happened.

Many people realize that a robbery is frightening, but I don't think they realize how a robbery can change someone's life. Five years of wind studies led to the March 2009 completion of the Portsmouth wind turbine. Soon after it became apparent through the lawsuit over construction, wind company bankruptcy, lack of warranty etc . that the town had been "had" or in simple terms robbed. Now like all machines a catastrophic gearbox event may have ended its future.

No one should bond emotionally to inanimate objects, such as the wind turbine....
Get rid of it !

Direct drive gearless generator technology is the way the industry is going. That may be why there's a 2 for one special on the dreaded gearbox.

WHO IS Bill Carson..? What is his Agenda. I have been looking around the PATCH.....Falmouth, MA.Patch. Plymouth, MA Patch. Bill is there talking down wind turbines. HE doesn't LIKE wind turbines... PERIOD.

Why is the Portsmouth PATCH providing a Platform for BILL to BASH Portsmouth. .?? I thought PATCH was here to Promote the town. Just wondering...

Neither here nor there. During my Hop Scotch poking around the country for PATCH stuff.....I went to California..and Wisconsin..The Barack Obama AD seen on the Portsmouth PATCH is on every PATCH forum....I don't know what to make of that....

I'm trying to help. Please put the cusor over the blue letters below and left click on your mouse .You'll see the movie for about a few minutes Thanks

http://firstrunfeatures.com/trailers_windfall.html
...

Life Under a Windplant.
This video is available here by courtesy of its creator, Jon Boone of Maryland

http://www.wind-watch.org/video-meyersdale.php

Part 1
Interesting article on Deep Wind.

http://www.anchorrising.com/barnacles/014575.html

This comment on it also is interesting.

If I am not mistaken, the turbines to be used were to be of Spanish manufacture. In light of present circumstances, Spain has had to withdraw its' subsidy and the industry has collapsed. Has another source been found?

Posted by: Warrington Faust at July 15, 2012 10:24 PM

Siemens will supply five of its new 6.0-megawatt direct drive offshore wind turbines for the Block Island Wind Farm. This will be the first project in the United States, and one of the first anywhere in the world, to use the new turbine, which will be commercially available for the project. Siemens also makes the off-shore mounting tower.

Deepwater Wind wants National Grid to run an undersea electric cable to Block Island to make up any loss of power from the wind farm.

However, no electric utility company in the world except in Hawaii allows more than the de facto standard of 15% renewable energy on their grids due to the non-consistent flow of energy and possibility of grid trip out due to uneven loads.

What is most interesting to me, is that it is the first of its kind, wether it will succeed then is up in the air.

Part 2

In Hawaii Maui Electric Company (MECO) has allowed 30% peak grid power to be generated by renewable energy but there are special controls that have been put in place. Also on Maui a special wind farm has been brought on-line that supplies constant firm power to the grid with a custom created addition making it the only wind farm of its kind in the world to accomplish this feat!

No electric utility company in the world has ever tested how much renewable energy can safely be allowed on the grid before trip out.

Over the next 2 years that test will be accomplished in Hawaii by the US Department of Energy with help from Japan and South Korea. Also the test will be completed with a smart grid under normal community loads, smart grid components individually will be tested and the security of a smart grid will be tested. Answers will not be known till 2014.

Posted by: KenW at July 16, 2012 3:44 AM

The three private wind turbines I see running on the Island seem to be doing fine. The turbine at Portsmouth Abby, and North East Engineers have several years under their belt .Hodges Badge the newest is running as well. Is it possible Portsmouth just bought a lemon ?

Jack, you could put those Huskies on a tread mill and make your own power . LOL.

Sorry to hear that . They are cool !

I''m having wind turbine news withdrawl. i hav'nt seen any posts from Bill Carson for over 8 hours. I hope he is in an Air Conditioned place. It was hot today.

Peggy you can say what you want about Bill but he has been right all along. He has supplied more information then the town. If they could have figured out a way to quietly pay for the repair they never would have told anybody there was even a problem.

Robert E: I was just concerned about Bills welfare on a hot day....Me Thinks you have to make everything political.

WINDFALL, a beautifully photographed feature length film, documents how this proposal divides Meredith’s residents as they fight over the future of their community. Attracted at first to the financial incentives that would seemingly boost their dying economy, a group of townspeople grow increasingly alarmed as they discover the impacts that the 400-foot high windmills slated for Meredith could bring to their community as well as the potential for financial scams. With wind development in the United States growing annually at 39 percent, WINDFALL is an eye-opener that should be required viewing for anyone concerned about the environment and the future of renewable energy.
http://firstrunfeatures.com/trailers_windfall.html
http://windfallthemovie.com/index_1.html

Haven't heard of any decision or discussion regarding our dead turbine lately. Has the council talked about this?

August 13 or 14 .Portsmouth has been blind sided by an industrial monstrosity that does not work.The energy pay back time was eight years.The Portsmouth wind turbine shows the economic case for commercial wind. The turbine is in the red and will require still more government support.

Wind developers still today tout life expectancies of industrial wind turbines that exceed 20 years . The Portsmouth Town Council was told a few weeks ago that the gear box failure rate was 10 to 1 in the first five years. The Town Council was told the gear box is bad . After the crane cost when they get the turbine on the ground they'll find the parts that caused the catastrophic loss.

About 17,000 people live in Portsmouth. The town studied wind turbines from 2004 to 2008 and in their "Due Diligence" it's more than a total failure. The Town Council should take responsibility for reporting the real costs of wind turbines and the impact on other ratepayers significant squandering of monies both public / tax payer and rate payers.

The turbine facilities are not reliable and durable as producers claim. The town was offered a two for one special on a gear box . The wind contractors understand In times of economic uncertainty, Town Council Members are more willing to make a purchase if they feel they're being responsible.
file under Bunco Scheme

Here We GO Again: Hey CARSON..TD asked a simple question: If you don't have THE Answer..why don't you just keep quiet until YOU ..or someone else FINDs the Answer.

The answer is simple. The town needs at least $500,000.00 to begin the repairs on the turbine probably alot more . With a population of 17,000 people it will only cost $30.00 per person to get the 1/2 million for one year .

The amount asked of the taxpayers will be based on residential and commercial property of course. A formula will be presented to you the taxpayer based on what the extra tax on your real estate property is to repair the wind turbine . It will be presented to you on how much more the turbine will cost you every day. It may only cost your family $2.50 a day for a year the same as a large ice coffee.This is how they sell the turbines , how many cups of coffee can you buy ?

I had thought the wind turbine contractors were going to offer the town a rebuilt gearbox at half price with a two year warranty but instead they offered two for the price of one. I still think the deal was made back in April when they knew it was the gear box . The deal back in April was the contractor will meet the town halfs on everything in order to keep the turbine going .

Municipalities should stay out of the industrial wind business . It's clear when politicians use your tax revenues to build them there is absolutley NO accountability because they'll retire,resign or get voted out office and you get the dinner bill !

The turbine does not represent energy independence for the Town of Portsmouth . It's three years old which is old by todays standards .It's a fiasco .

John face the facts Bill has been right on this issue from the start just because you don't like his message does not mean he is not right. The town has been lyeing to us about the problems with this turbine and by constantly resettig it every time it tripped out probably lead to is early demise. Every time it tripped the town should have called the maintence company but Gary was more concerned with keeping the availability artificially high he ground the gearbox into pulp.

TD,

Middletown Town council discussed Wind Turbines on Monday. The article about ran on Tuesday morning, which I believed sparked up conversations in this older thread.

Here is the link:
http://patch.com/A-wHLd

I believe the Portsmouth Town Council is going to throw the new electric bill at the public next week and tell you they need the turbine. Promoting wind is a political agenda . The town council will now plan to transfer the financial burden to households and industrial consumers through the local tax base.

Wind energy today is recognized as an antiquated, unreliable and expensive source of energy. Look at the facts and figures for the Portsmouth Town wind turbine !

The voters in the United States do not understand Socialism. Politicians are creating socialism through wind turbine renewable energy credits, tax breaks and other bunco scheme investments through boutique offshore banks dedicated to the wind industry. Most often the wind turbine investments do not stack up to the cold hard light of day.

The residents have to confront the Town Council at their meeting next week. What happened to open government ?

Yes Town Council will ask to replace the gearbox at the August 14th meeting :

PORTSMOUTH TOWN COUNCIL MEETING TUESDAY, August 14, 2012

Agenda

7:00 p.m. – Town Council Chambers, Town Hall, 2200 East Main Road

OLD BUSINES

3. Request to Consider Gearbox Replacement for the Wind Turbine Generator

http://www.portsmouthri.com/Old%20Site%20Files/towndocs/ag-08-14-2012.htm

The installation of a large WTG behind Westport's new Central Village Fire Station (near Beech Grove Cemetery) was strongly advocated for several years by the legacy town Energy Committee. When this committee was reconstituted with a more balanced membership - that had no particular agenda and utilized rigorous fact-based analyses - the economics of this WTG could simply not be justified. TheTown residents, when briefed in an open hearing, got the message and overwhelmingly turned down the WTG. Yes, the experience at Portsmouth was a contributing factor and now Town by-laws are in the process of being updated to account for responsible WTG development. Middletown should proceed cautiously with WTG development and always be mindful that much of the WTG hype is targeted at those, shall we say, who are not well-versed in unbiased fact-based analysis.

Portsmouth needs to buy three gear box units if they go forward with repairs. At the 7 to 10 year milestone there is a significant unavailability risk for a new or rebuilt gearbox.

The town has NO wind turbine business plan . The guy that was pushing the reset button every 6 to 8 hours for a couple of years was he even appointed or reappointed by Town Council for this job -what were his qualifications? Will the town continue pushing the reset button again for two more years?

Do the town council members even listen to what they hear from wind turbine contractors at their own meetings ? One individual was introduced as important management for the "Big Dig" in Boston. That should at least ring a bell ! The Portsmouth turbine has a "Big Dig" business plan-keep throwing money at it !

The gear box is a giant monster and old school technology, look at Portsmouth Abbey , the owners that are successful bought a smaller 660 KW unit with a much smaller gear box.

This Greed not Green

Aug 14 Town Council will vote to repair the wind turbine. Does the Town has the authority to borrow the money for the turbine repairs and new construction without taking the measure to the ballot box ? Yes they do and they are probably going to fix it over and over again.

Should the town be prudent to get the consensus of the voters before moving on with project repairs? There will be no feasibility study by an outside third party ? If not why not ?

In 2007 the residents of Portsmouth voted by ballot on a referendum vote in favor of an industrial wind turbine.The vote was based on a poor feasibility study that only told voters the good side of commercial wind leaving out any and all negative information. The Town Council during 2007 thought local government should be involved in making expensive political statements aka industrial wind at any cost .

The next few years will be the same old story .People driving up rte 24 will ask :" Why isn't the wind turbine spinning ?" The answer: "Well our turbine is different it doesn't spin like all the others" Sound familiar ?
http://www.ebcne.org/fileadmin/pres/4-3-09_Gary_Gump.pdf

Albatross.

Just like the one approved and going up in a residential neighborhood in North Kingstown.

The Portsmouth Council questions Fire Department's overtime spending while spending tens ofthousands on wind turbine maintenance contracts.

If the Town Council votes to repair the turbine it remains an albatross around the neck of Portsmouth taxpayers for the next 17 years. One turbine company experience over 600 gear box failures and almost went bankrupt.

Failure of a critical component, such as a gearbox, can cause damage to other components but that won't be known until the whole turbine is on the ground for an inspection.

When the figures for the repairs come in there is nothing to prevent the Town Council from just buying a new wind turbine .

Check out the pdf below Page 8 of 32

"Although the Town may borrow money for this project without specific voter approval, we want to make sure we have approval of the majority of our citizens on this project. Even though we knew it would be a lot more work and cause us to jump through more “hoops” we felt that this was important.."
http://www.ebcne.org/fileadmin/pres/4-3-09_Gary_Gump.pdf

Request to Consider Gearbox Replacement for the Wind Turbine Generator .Portsmouth Town Council Meeting Under old business - Tuesday -August 14 at 7 PM

They should be voting for a wind turbine moratorium

http://www.portsmouthri.com/Old%20Site%20Files/towndocs/ag-08-14-2012.htm

Turbine repairs should go out for a referendum vote. What's happening with the turbine isn't what the voters originally voted for . The information about gearbox failure was well known prior to this installation. The voters never were told any negative information !

There is no longer an economic opportunity for the Portsmouth wind turbine. The gearbox failure illustrates the financial boondoggle that commercial wind is now in due to falling energy prices, cost overruns and so called unexpected breakdowns. Will Portsmouth borrow and invest another million or more in a wind turbine that will only go a few more months based on the break down history!

The Town Council should put the projected repair costs out for referendum vote .Changing a gearbox is a long and extremely costly exercise. The front bearing maybe only half the size it should be and probably needs replacement. The blades will be inspected when it's on the ground.

Check out the pdf below Page 8 of 32

"Although the Town may borrow money for this project without specific voter approval, we want to make sure we have approval of the majority of our citizens on this project. .."
http://www.ebcne.org/fileadmin/pres/4-3-09_Gary_Gump.pdf

1.3 billion turbines just to replace cola fired power plants.

But lets just start with the 1,025 turbines needed to replace Brayton Point. Where will they put them all? Well that's where eminent domain comes in.

The federal government is leasing 3400 square miles of ocean to commercial wind turbine contractors.This in addition to the Nantucket wind farm and the Rhode Island experiment . The 3400 square miles is in prime fishing grounds just South of Marthas Vineyard to Rhode Island .Many people believe NOAA-the federal government is ristricting the fishing industry to put it out of business.

It actually will take 2500 turbines 1.5 MW turbine to replace Brayton Point . The 1.5 MW generation doesn't happen until the wind blows 23 mph or higher .So you need double the amount of Megawatts to equal the plant at an averge wind speed of around 12 mph on the ocean .

Here is the kicker : Each ocean wind costs 6 million plus . After you add the cost of the turbines double that cost because the underwater electric cables equal the cost of all the turbines . The federal government dosen't want the fishing boats pulling up the cables and the fishermen feel the first time it happens Homeland Security will throw the fishing industry out .

So here is the formula each turbine costs 12 million installed and that doesn't count operation and maintenance .Now multiply that by 2500 wind turbines . The federal government ( who is you and me) is giving Production Tax Credits and Renewable Energy Credits for each turbine - This is called Socialism there is nothing else you can call it

No Bill you are wrong on calling it just socialism - it is a well economic terrorism being played out by our Marxist Government in Washington, DC & The RI General Assembly plus our Congressional delegation..

OBTW I think a capacity factor of .22 should be used for the WTG calculations.

Now back her on Aquidneck Island , based on the numbers now circulating , we should be strongly recommending that Portsmouth take down the WTG and cut its 16.5 years of bleeding.

I agree bill there has already been a lot of wrangling over the fishing in the Cape Wind project as it will devistate fishing there. If I remember right the plan is to have a very large safe right of way around it, and the cable to the cape,you will not be able to go near it at all, that will take up 100's of sqaure miles of prime fishing,killing off the industry in new bedford more than they already have In my opinion..

Sorry I cant link, it was something I read a couple of years ago, and seem to remember the fishermen protesting with Kenedy support to stop the Cape wind project on those grounds also.
...

The Portsmouth Wind turbine is a big bust. Anyone in town that thinks that turkey is making money is dreaming. After dumping $65K into new storage batteries for that site and now looking at a $450,000 bill to replace a blown transmission, has to wonder where this is all going. Jamestown just put the brakes on their windturbine project when word got out about Portsmouth. I've also noticed that none of the three wind turbines in Providence are working yet. Reason? They are missing the cabling to control the units. No word on when it will arrive. Those three turkeys will be down more than they are up - total waste of taxpayer money.

The final feasibility study results given to Town Council back prior to voting for the wind turbine only showed positive information about building a commercial wind turbine. Many of these reports are prepared for public officials by other state of federal agencies whose whole purpose is to advance the renewable energy products . Many of the state and federal employees who write positive reports go on to work for the wind turbine industry.

The reports are not a lie. What they do is compile the data then build a report leaving out all the negative information . They may throw one sentence in about there is always a chance of a catastrophic breakdown but that's what the NIMBYs say.When you read these positive reports you the reader have to look for the missing information.In other words look for what's not in the report ! Not what's in it.

Wind power is more expensive to produce than any other form of power. This is economic terrorism of the taxpayers of Rhode Island . The reports and studies that will be given to justify the repairs on the wind turbine will be prepared just like always and lack a third party with no ties to the wind industry.

The bottom line : Since March 2009 to today over three years later the turbine has a negative cash flow.The town has witnessed the breakdowns,phone calls,news stories and embarrassment. Do you close schools and lay off teachers to keep a bad project going ?

Statewide Planning and URI RESP stakeholders group have spent the last year creating guidlines for Wind Energy in RI. All towns will be looking to these documents and tools in determining the future of Wind Energy in RI. I don't know how many of you have attended so far, but they are looking for public feedback on these documents before putting them in stone. You all need to quit preaching on this forum and review these documents by Aug 31st and make a real difference.

The Rhode Island Renewable Energy Siting Partnership (RESP) is pleased to present DRAFT products for public comment. The RESP team encourages all stakeholders and residents of Rhode Island to review these products and submit comments using the online comment forms described below. The public comment period will close at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, August 31, 2012. (Vol 3 in particular)

Links to download PDF files for the products can be accessed along the left hand side of the following web page: http://seagrant.gso.uri.edu/resp/comment.html.

The RESP website offers an online form for submitting comments on the draft products: http://seagrant.gso.uri.edu/resp/comment.html.

Also check out these maps http://www.rienergy.org/archives/energy-sources/wind for overall wind source and constraints. And then actually site turbines anywhere in RI with interactive noise, flicker, etc. here http://www.edc.uri.edu/resp/WindSitingViewer/

Then post your feeedback in the comment material above. Remember Aug 31 is deadline and there is a lot of material. Focus on vol 3 (shortest) which the towns will create ordinances around. Distribute to all interested parties. Also attend tomorrow:

Two state-sponsored public workshops have been scheduled for August 2012. The purpose of each meeting is to discuss the Renewable Energy Siting Partnership Final Report and hear public comments on the draft. The workshops will take place:
1) Wednesday, August 15, 2012, 6:00 p.m.
URI Narragansett Bay Campus, Corless Auditorium
Focus: Wind Energy
Agenda - http://sos.ri.gov/openmeetings/?page=meeting&id=128155
2) Wednesday, August 22, 2012, 6:00 p.m.
URI Narragansett Bay Campus, Corless Auditorium
Focus: Solar Energy, Hydropower, and RIEnergy.org
Agenda - http://sos.ri.gov/openmeetings/?page=meeting&id=128156

Vestas, one of if not the premier wind turbine manufacturer has announced layoffs to their US workforce

"Vestas tied the layoffs directly to the failure of Congress to extend a wind energy tax credit set to expire this year.

"Uncertainty over whether Congress will extend the Production Tax Credit is leading to a general market slowdown," Vestas spokesman Andrew Longeteig said in the statement."

Industrial wind companies want an extension of the PTC, Production Tax Credit.The production tax credit benefits corporate investors and wind project owners. The credit is an open ended subsidy that directly reduces the amount of federal corporate income taxes.

Do you think these companies really care about the environment ? The bottom line is their profit not your pocketbook.

The price of abundant shale gas is expected to keep gas prices low and stable. Industrial wind can not compete with the gas prices. Natural gas prices are determining the competitiveness of wind.

The public has become more aware of the dirty little wind industry secrets.Lack of inspection of the wind turbine blades can reduce the performance of a turbine up to 30 percent and gearbox failures are valued at 15 to 20 percent of what a new turbine cost today. The cost of the Jamestown wind turbine today is 6 million. Based on that cost the repairs on the Portsmouth wind turbine are over one million.

Thanks Bill Carson. Thank you for your tenacity in shedding light on the reality of this boondoggle initiative that the Portsmouth Town Council initiated, promoted and brought to a vote. Unfortunately, the uninformed citizens of Portsmouth passed it and we are stuck with this broken down, metalic, eyesore. Personally, my Portsmouth property taxes have gone up by about $1,400 in the last 4 years to pay for this piece of scrap. Every town council member who supported this should resign. Every one of them. They clearly are not smart enough to hold themselves out as effective leaders of our town. But they got what they wanted though, didn't they? They got to feel good about themselves. "Look everybody-I'm green. I care about the environment". The next time you want to show everybody how much you care, do it with your own money.....not TAXPAYER'S MONEY!

So keep on posting Bill Carson. I have learned a lot from your posts and the links that you and others have provided.

And I can't wait until November 6th!

http://cleantechnica.com/2011/11/12/amory-lovins-nails-renewable-energy-costs-energy-subsidies-myth-of-baseload/ Greater minds than my own clearly refute this knee-jerk aversion to wind power, which is a distributed node model.

Anyone that "The price of abundant shale gas is expected to keep gas prices low and stable. Industrial wind can not compete with the gas prices. Natural gas prices are determining the competitiveness of wind." is attempting to shift the pollution to remote places, where the consequences are born by those other the consumer.

Let us not pretend opposition to wind power is about fairness - it's aesthetics trumping common sense.

Don't blame Town Council members or others in the community who were wind turbine advocates. The town was given only positive information about commercial wind power .Many thought it was an economic engine for the town. Let's hope the last three years taught everyone a lesson.

Corporate planners-contractors, government policymakers and boutique investment bankers all worked together in the past 10 to 12 years to sell commercial wind. They only tell the positive side of commercial wind . The wind turbine contractors get profit .The government policymakers go on to work for commercial wind when they leave public life and the boutique banks that cater to the wind industry makes their profit.

Local public officials weren't given bad information .They never got to see the negative information. Leaving out important information is the same as not allowing to tell the economic truth or Socialism.

Wind power is unreliable and inefficient . You can't keep pouring money into building things that do not work!

Apex wind is looking to purchase land in Tiverton to create a wind farm. The town would only sell the land as I understand it. Seems the private sector is cashing in on wind power .

I'm not up on the wind farm deals . What do you think of my views :

First- from what I've read the private wind turbine companies want to be partners with private land owners. This is called Capitalism. As long as the wind turbines have the correct setbacks and average 35 acres per turbine there is nothing wrong with private enterprise and venture capitalist .

Next is the East Bay Energy Consortium ,EBEC. This agency wants special legislation to build a public wind farm . The EBEC would be overseen by a 10 to 12 town representatives who would soon be making 6 figure salaries.The EBEC would be a semi- quasi state agency that controls the siting ,building and construction of turbines . They really should call it the East Bay Social Collaborative . The government through the RIEDC , Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation has been granting cash to help another state agency form.

Ultimately the government is in charge of the turbines .This is called Socialism. Socialism brings up the economic suffering of everyone . Look at what happened with the Portsmouth turbine.

I think the EBEC deal is dead in Tiverton. There just doesn't seem to be the trust in a quasi public agency. We have two private proposals that sound promising and will actually benefit the Town . The first is Apex wind and the proposal is wind turbines.They are interested in our industrial park. The second is the property north of our industrial park . It is more of a solar farm and will produce ethanol from algae to power fuel cells . The proposals are moving forward, and look promising.

B ig D ummy never misses a chance to spew the venom

People can watch the meeting on Blog spot Tiverton video Don't take a B ig D ummy's word for it

"Not to mention the government should never be involved in private industry, it is incapable of creating anything but corruption when it does get involved and the taxpayers get nailed in the end." Jack B, above

You mean, building things like roads, hospitals, clean water supplies, etc?

The real threat distributed power poses is to the current purveyors; if each municipality were to begin providing it's own - how much would need to travel over our failing transmission lines? Anyone who went without after Hurricane Irene knows that more traditional generation won't help us if it can't reach the outlet.

If you don't think that wind and PV power can't supplant fossil fuels, you're neither doing the math or looking down the road very far. (Which is reactionary.)

For those of us that slept through High School physics, here's a primer:
http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~p670/Wi04/textbook/per14.pdf

For 1000 square feet of horizontal area (typical roof area) this is equivalent to 12 gallons of gas or about 450 KWH, per day, on average. Is it constant? No.

Is it easily transmissible? No.

Is it within the realm of engineering to make wind and solar power profitable?
Certainly, but that's the wrong question. Remember that the internet, personal computer, GPS and interstate commerce were all government startups. They were
derided as wasteful, too.

The Town of Portsmouth was offered a sales promotion of buying two gearbox units for the price of one during May 2012.

At a recent meeting there was a discussion about taking the two units and selling the spare unit to someone else to cut down on costs.The sale of the second unit could make the turbine profitable in the next seventeen years if it never breaks down again. Let's keep in mind this deal was offered to the town one month prior to the announcement that the gearbox had actually failed.

Now the town is not only in the wind business but is actually thinking of buying and selling wind turbine parts from a second or third generation wind gear box manufacturer. The reason the offer was made for two gear box units was they have a ten to one shot of failure in the first five years and these units may not be manufactured in another 7 years even on the secondary market.

After three years the turbine account is in the red and supposedly has seventeen years left on its life .The future of the wind turbine looks bleak . How much will this scenario cost in another three years?
Option 4 - Take it down.

So what did the Portsmouth Town Council decide to do at their meeting? I fully expect that they are going to double-down on stupidity and buy a new gearbox (or two), right? There is no way they will decide to scrap the turbine. There is no way thier collective egos can admit that they made a mistake. Did they discuss it at all? I have not seen their decision mentioned here.

And I'm sorry Bill C. but I do blame the town council. Yes, it is obvious that they fell for the one-sided presentations of the wind turbine industry. But it is their job not to fall prey to these tactics. It is their responsibility to do their due dilligence and procatively seek out both sides of the arguement when committing $3,000,000 + of taxpayer money. But unfortunately for the taxpayers of Portsmouth that is not what greenies do. Once they hear what they already believe they stop there and won't even consider an opposing view. And if they were to entertain an opposing voice and it doesn't agree with their preconceived ideas they just demonize the nay-sayer.
At the very least if their less than fully informed decisions to commit $3,000,000+ of taxpayers money proves to be a bad decision then they should pay some sort of political price in my opinion. But instead they simply say "Let's look forward not backward".
OK-got it! I'm looking forward to November 6th when I have the opportunity to vote out anybody who supported this wind turbine initiative.

There was a verbal request for over 600 thousand dollars to repair the turbine .Then a motion to table the request -whatever that means- They tabled the request and that was that . There were only three options given to repair the turbine .There was NO option for taking it down.What I call Option 4

The Portsmouth Economic Development Committee (PEDC) Sustainable Energy Subcommittee worked since 2004 doing its "Due Diligence". Most of the positive imformation came from the state energy czar. Gov Carcieri sent his Energy Czar to speak to the residents of Portsmouth in Feb of 2007 . You are correct about doing "Due Diligence". The Portsmouth Economic Development Committee and the Town Council should have asked what was the background of the state energy czar.

The one and only Energy Czar worked in the wind industry prior to being hired at the RIEDC where he was quickley move from RIEDC to state Energy Czar. When the Energy Czar left state service he went back to work for the wind turbine companies.

When large companies run scams or bunco schemes on small towns all it is called is a sales pitch - The Town Council fell for the sales pitch - You just hope they won't go for the "two for one special "

Lee they should hold fools rallies there. You can be the ring leader.

EBEC bad!!!!! Very BADDDDDDDDDDD.

This is an organization, that will raise its ugly head again and again to do nothing but scam the taxpayers yet again out our hard earned money. Beware the wolf in sheeps clothing, promising streets of gold on green energy that will never happen with the government or taxpayer money involved.

The lies will continue and the nepotism and corruption by politicians to extend favors to the chosen few will also continue. Rember Studio 38, BCWA, EDC, Portsmouth Turbine, Solyndra, Amtrack, High Speed Rails, and so much other waste currently on the government books by these parasites of the night draining your tax monies.

All politicians who support this, should be voted out of office with no pension, no benefits and a good spanking for being theives of the taxpayers money in my opinion.

"Personal computers, GPS and interstate commerce had nothing to do with the government. That was inventors and innovators. The interstate was built for national security purposes, you are using the insane Obama argument of "you didn't build that" on the other things." it must be hard to type with your knee jerking like this...

Hardly insane to suggest that the infrastructure supporting these enterprises ALL got their start at great expense and with public distrust as a Socialist endeavor.

There are lots of great ideas born everyday - few of them take hold without an injection of subsidy. Would TANG have made it to market without NASA?

Th he first commercial application of the integrated circuit was in the guidance system of the Minuteman missle. Care to speculate on the cost or reliability of the first generation?

GPS was developed by the Department of Defense for the 1991 conflict. The private use of these satellites and the required technology would not exist without the support provided by public money. What portion of current telecomm revenue stems directly from the application of that once balky technology?

Remember Iridium satellite phones?
Interstate commerce (moving things across State lines) is entirely conducted
on public roads, railways or by air. The roads were built under Eisenhower,
the Railways by Lincoln and the NCARC generated low cost funding to provide incentive to further expand air freight capacity, starting in 1997.

Claiming that this project is any more fraught with risk or expense than the others
(which were all considered boondoggles in their time)

This notion that government has no place in rolling out nascent technologies with the potential to change the consumer landscape is not only revisionist but also
cowardly - unlike the inventors of such machines that revolutionized our lives.

It's the depths of an absurd notion that an inventor labors in a basement until a product springs, fully formed into the marketplace. Government bridges the gap between inspiration and application. Winning industrial policy grasps this simple
fact. Those that don't are sitting on their hands, watching the World pass by.

http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/07/bankruptcies_of_solyndra_konar.html

The Chinese and Germans know this, already.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/story/2012-06-11/Renewable-energy-investment/55517876/1

"Oh the government didn't build the railroads by the way, it was the vanderbilts and such." http://www.shmoop.com/transcontinental-railroad/economy.html

That's revisionist (again) - my point is pretty clear, the public pays for these large scale infrastructure projects and future generations reap the rewards.

It's a legacy. What's yours? Crumbling roads, dirty water, hopeless schools?

"We also do not live in china not do we live in Germany which are 2 totally different societies and government systems."

Quite right - there's are working through a strategic plan of investment in public works and alternative energy sources. Long term, PLANNING.

There are those on these pages that consider it off topic to redress the assertion that planning is somehow a bad thing - that it steals freedom. THAT is off topic.

The difference - their systems are working, while ours crumbles. One Brayton point failure and how many of us are in the dark - and for how long?

Distributed power generated by these renewables are well, distributed.
If there's only one power source, and it fails - you're sunk until repairs are made.

China sits on how much coal? They are doubling their wind capacity, this year.
http://www.gwec.net/index.php?id=125

"Also Depatment of defence does not invent, private contracters do. Same with NASA. I have found it to be pointless to talk to anyone who believes Obama's rhetoric that it was roads and infastructure that built businesses not the individual, because yes that is insane." Ask Jeff Bezos if it's insane. He has more money than us, so he must be right - if money is how you keep score.

Raytheon is a defense contractor. The DoD pays them with funds derived from taxation. Do you honestly believe someone in their basement would have developed this system so that you could have a cellphone tell you where to turn?

If you find it pointless to discuss the scaffolding concept, and consider this an insane point of view then calling you stupid would be an insult to stupid people.

Every substantive endeavor in modern human history has required the support
of Nations. Do you think Columbus pounded his own boat together from floorboards? Did his crew sign on for shares, or pay? Where did Columbus
source his payroll?

No one does this alone - no matter what your Ayn Rand bible says.

"This is a pointless excersise in futility to even suggest what you are saying in my opinion. When Kenedy said a man on the moon by the end of the decade, I do not recall him saying the government do it. Security reasons formed NASA obviously. geeze" - JB

I'm still laughing over the audacity of this. There were so many vendors clamoring to invent TANG that NASA had to step in to stop the slaughter?

That's just idiotic, Jack.

The Portsmouth Economic Development Committee (PEDC) Sustainable Energy Initiative was for renewable energy. The PEDC only looked at commercial wind turbines .I don't know why they just didn't call themselves the Portsmouth Wind Turbine Committee. At some point the committee decided to buy a wind turbine and never looked back at other sources of renewable energy .

If Portsmouth had spent one million dollars on a Geothermal well at the Portsmouth High School they would have gotten the same results in renewable energy as a three million dollar commercial wind turbine .The Geothermal system has very few moving parts and you don't need to rent special cranes to work on it .

A Geothermal well at the high school would have put HVAC workers ,well companies ,electricians and almost all the local trades to work .

The town proposes spending over $600,000.00 to repair the turbine . The 600 grand could be spent on some other source of renewable energy like Geothermal ,photovoltaic or how about spending the money on Fiber Optic lighting that cuts the lighting bill by 75 percent ?

I'm a fan of Amory Lovins, who has taken the long view on energy policy.

He also advocates a mix of renewable energy sources with a much heavier emphasis on conservation (a concept conservatives must embrace, right?) and coined the term "nega-barrels" describing how much easier and cheaper efficiency is than generating power. What you don't use costs less, by his calculus.

What brought me to this site is the discussion that wind turbines are bad, particularly in a mixed-use setting. Wind Turbines are appropriate in this setting for several reasons; a private concern cannot see fast enough ROI to convince shareholders of viability - only governments can take such a long view.

It generates power at the point of use, as a node.

Those that oppose wind turbines seem to blend their aesthetic revulsion with a
handful of opposing data (some with merit, some without verifiable support) to
justify their position that these things are a waste of taxpayer's money.

The Mt. Hope bridge is a laudable example of how a proven technology in a small scale can be built by the private sector. It should also be noted that the Mt. Hope bridge builders went bankrupt after operating only two years.

Which sort of illustrates my point - some useful things are not suited to the private sector even when they are beneficial.

"Toll bridges are obviously not needed, there are a total of 136 Toll bridges in the whole Country. I wonder how the vast majority of tens of thousands of other bridges are built and maintained? Could it be with fiscal responsibilty of the taxpayers monies maybe?" So we agree, then - the public purse has a purpose?

Some projects are too large for private enterprise and must be handled by the
largest entity in the land, namely government. You're all over the map on this, Jack.

I'm still laughing about your take on NASA, it's epic. Dimwitted, but epic.

In your earlier positions, you suggest that everything be built and paid for by private entities. Either you believe private enterprise should build everything or you don't in this calculus. It's a revisionist view of the world that is accountably
wrong. I don't for a minute believe cranks actually care about the future.

You lot just don't like these things towering over your neighborhood.
I suppose West Virginia families don't like heavy metal tailings in their water, either.

There's a great deal of "I told you so." coming from the detractors of this project.
The AAER bankruptcy was unprecedented - and could not have been forseen by any of the rearview prognosticators on this board, nor could the bankruptcy of the Mt. Hope bridge, which is now taxpayer property.

Pointless, I know to attempt discussions with someone who thinks logic is insanity.

FYI - If the beef is with government subsidy, you have a point.

Let all the players pay their own way, and pay for their own trash.
Let's start with Coal and Oil producers, shall we?

http://www.window.state.tx.us/specialrpt/energy/subsidies/

Let's not pretend this is about the free market setting prices or the government
"picking winners" - this is about where the power originates and who deals
with the unpleasant side effects.

Jack B how did environmentist make it tougher for you to build a wind turbine. most of them are for green energy. Jack do you still get that government pension. I think they built a pretty good nest egg for you to live off, that big bad federal government?

Jack next time read a little more if you can. Jim L is the one demanding everyone use their name without using his full name. You are a minor leaguer, your political philosophy is not very well though out. You sir are a real ham and egger.

Jack very nice work. Look back a bit further in those same posts and see JimL complaining about the using your real name issue while failing to use his own. You a very simple and quite slow. As i said before a real ham and egger and the rambling fool who was partly responsible for eastbay section being shut down. Talk about a guy with nothing to do, how many posts per day Jack.

Jack talks a lot but He IS Real. I have Googled (and AnyWho) quite a few other persons "Full Names" ..You know..those people that whine that posters won't use their REAL names..??? ....who would have you believe they are real. They are FAKE names.. Lets take..Naome Lixes. NO Such person. Made up name. Just sayin' Google her name and you end up right back to Patch.

Just to lighten things up a bit: I worked in the engineering department at Brown & Sharpe back in the mid 70s. In our office we had Three Johns, Two Dicks and a Peter in the offfice.

Now taking bids from local contractors to demolish all taxpayer funded non functioning area turbines.

Why did the PEDC choose wind power over any other type of renewable energy ? How much time did they spend on each source ? Could the 600 thousand dollar repair bill for the turbine be better spent on some other renewable energy project other than the turbine ?

http://www.portsmouthrienergy.com/WTGdedication051209.htm

Quonsett Point received a 22.3 million dollar Tiger Grant from the federal government . The grant was given to the RIEDC and is being spent on large cranes at the base for the ocean wind turbine contracts . There is an area south of Marthas Vineyard to Rhode Island about 3400 square miles of leased space in federal waters for commercial wind turbines.

Quonsett Point will see thousands of jobs if the project gets off the ground . Quonsett Point is the home of Senesco Barge and Jay Cashman ,the largest marine contractor in the world . I think Quonsett Point will be like a boom town .

The politicians have been promising places like New Bedford they will be the home of the ocean wind turbines . My bet is on Quonsett Point it's already built from all the wars . The other cities haven't even got a permit to build yet .

The only problem is click here : PTCFacts.Info

Click here for wind facts :
Wind Production Tax Credit Facts
http://ptcfacts.info/

Jamestown says NO to commercial wind. Local leaders recognized the need for total gearbox replacements every 5 years on a turbine.The newer gear less turbines are new to the market.Too new for a small community spending millions on one turbine.

The gear drove wind turbines pose great challenges to the community scale adoption of wind turbines for a school or municipality. The high O&M ,operation and maintenance costs of maintaining a gear driven wind turbines are an insurmountable risk to the community wind application

Local towns cannot afford to employ maintenance crews and fund expensive gearbox assembly replacements. The down time and fiasco of the Portsmouth wind turbine has lead to poor public perception of wind projects as the turbine has taken on national attention.

In August of 2007 over 80% of profit warnings in the wind industry were from gearbox issues. The main issue were poor bearings.The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in 2007 in a conference paper stated the gear box issues.

Where was the Portsmouth Economic Development Committee (PEDC) and "Due Diligence" ? Portsmouth Wind Turbine installed March 2009 two years later !

Wind Turbine Update August 27,2012 @ 7 PM Monday night. The Portsmouth Town Administrator will discuss the options for rebuilding the Portsmouth High School wind turbine. The town has the two or three options to rebuild the three year old wind turbine. The town looks to committed to only review the options to spend more taxpayer funds.

The town is not looking at all the options. The last option should be to hire a financial consultant and review the option of taking down the turbine rather than throw good money on a failed project. There really never has been a third party financial advisor to get a basic idea of the different options they could review.

The wind turbine case demonstrates why Rhode Island and its cities and towns have earned last in the business climate. Only in Rhode Island could 38 Studios have happened now the Portsmouth wind turbine.The past three years showed the lack of viability of the project yet they are going forward again !
Hopelessly going forward !

http://www.portsmouthri.com/Old%20Site%20Files/towndocs/ag-08-27-2012.htm

Bill Carson, have you seen this? It appears deep water may have more prolems along with the state and National grid.

http://block-island.villagesoup.com/news/story/deepwater-deal-faces-federal-complaint/889810

The real overriding issue is that INDUSTRIAL WIND TURBINES ARE A SHAM AND DO NOT PROVIDE CLEAN ENERGY! Not one coal or gas plant the world over has been decommissioned because of IWTs...and eliminating our dependence on fossil fuels is their whole purpose. To quote an expert: “Because wind blows intermittently, electric utilities must either keep their conventional power plants running all the time to make sure the lights don’t go dark, or continually ramp up and down the output from conventional coal-or gas-fired generators (called “cycling”). But coal-fired and gas-fired generators are designed to run continuously, and if they don’t, fuel consumption and emissions generally increase.” This is happening worldwide, and in places like Colorado and Texas where CO2 and power plant pollution have increased since installing wind farms:
http://www.forbes.com/2011/07/19/wind-energy-carbon.htmlhttp://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_15081808
http://www.clepair.net/IerlandUdo.html
http://www.thespec.com/news/ontario/article/610422--cost-of-green-energy-40-higher-than-government-estimates
The wind industry is built on crony capitalism, it is the only way it can exist. Taxpayer money builds them and power companies are mandated to buy wind generated power at much higher rates than conventionally produced power. There is no true benefit, except to wind power companies, politicians and lobbyists.

Great questions, and that report is public information. Request it under the new RI RECORDS LAW that takes effect.... TODAY!

The turbine is toast ! It doesn't take an expert to figure that out .When the town employee was hitting the restart button every 6 to 8 hours my bet is the gears were going in the gear box and that has ruined the shaft and front bearings behind the turbine blades in the narcel. Try hitting the reset button on your home heating unit every 6 to 8 hours you'll end up with the fire department there pretty quickley.

The Town Council Members will be given a report that shows the three major components toasted . The point now is the town is being sold another wind turbine deal with a 2 Megawatt "new gearless" turbine .This turbine is 25 % larger than the current turbine. The town is going in the wind turbine business with a private contractor.

You have to admit the town got taken on the first wind turbine deal .The three year old turbine was supposed to last twenty years !

The town is making its decisions by what the National Renewable Energy Laboratory,NERL,is telling them. The NREL is a federal laboratory dedicated to the research, development, commercialization and deployment of commercial wind turbines.Aka - NO negative info from them !

This is exactley how they bought the first turbine by only listening to the positive spin and not looking for the negative or information left out of turbine reports .

History of Portsmouth Wind Turbine Fiasco. Left click on the urls in blue below to read the history of the turbine . The urls do not include the lawsuit over the foundation construction of the turbine or placing the 70 ton wind turbine within the fall zone of the towns water supply.

It appears the town was more interested in production of the turbine rather than maintenance. The town had a program to bring other cities and towns in to show off the turbine .The end actually came on March 9,2011 when Jamestown, Rhode Island officials came to Portsmouth and the turbine was breaking down more than it was working - total failure

http://www.wind-watch.org/news/2010/10/29/portsmouth-turbine-stops-turning/

October 29, 2010 • Rhode Island

http://www.wind-watch.org/news/2010/12/17/breakdown-stalls-portsmouth-wind-turbine/

December 17, 2010 • Rhode Island

http://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/02/04/dead-batteries-stall-wind-turbine/

February 4, 2011 • Rhode Island

http://www.wpri.com/dpp/news/local_news/east_bay/broken-wind-turbine-still-not-fixed

July 11,2012

Jamestown officials came to view the broken wind turbine March 9 ,2012 . Before I put 2011 it should have been 2012 This visit was enough to end the wind turbine program in Jamestown. Jamestown has done away with any thoughts of a commercial wind turbine based on what happened in Portsmouth. Jamestown is looking at other sources of renewable that don't require maintenance costs that exceed the original cost of a turbine three years after it was built.

The Portsmouth town officials have just witnessed the failure of its own turbine over a three year period ! Yet they continue to go forward ? There is a national audience watching this whole financial fiasco play out !

http://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/03/15/jamestown-brass-takes-tour-of-portsmouthis-wind-turbine/

One million cash from school department to the town so the town can build up a surplus?

It has been noted that the school department may have as much as one and one half million from making cuts last year .The announcement about the school million dollar surplus was announced almost to the day that the wind turbine broke down last May 2012.

The town council is going to increase the school budget by one million in return for handing over one million in cash ?

So lets get this straight . The town needs about one million to fix the turbine ? In May of 2012 when the turbine stopped working all of a sudden the one million gets pulled out of a hat ?

The school department gives the town one million which goes into the surplus fund which will pay for the wind turbine repairs and the town gives the school a one million dollar budget increase forever?

What a deal for the taxpayers! You never see one cent in tax relief from the one and one half million in savings and the school gets its budget increased an additional one million a year forever !

Who is fooling who here ? NO ONE GETS THIS ?

test

HI, I am engineer in the wind industry. I think the town's employees did make big mistake. Please take a look on it. Big problem with oil pressure...

http://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/06/16/portsmouth-wind-turbine-goes-offline-again/

“Due to recurring problems with oil pressure monitoring in the gearbox, the wind turbine is currently offline,”

Oil pressure alarm can hide several problems and causes as well as oil filter blocked due to the presence of steel flakes or contaminated oil, hoses leaks, motor pump troubles, and so on. The problem was either inside the gearbox itself or in the oil lubrication system.

If you reset alarm and restart immediately the wind turbine without any real investigation is like playing with the fire... Why the maintenance people was not in the turbine, whatever if the turbine was restart or not?!

Please let the experts complete their reports!!!

The Portsmouth Town Council should receive a report tonight 9/12 on the condition of the wind turbine. It's my belief that the oil sensor was working OK and kept turning off the turbine as there was microns on metal in the gear oil . The people in charge of the turbine took the view that this was the same as an idiot light in an old car and kept pushing the restart button to prove to the world the turbine had good outputs !

How many times was the turbine restarted without calling the maintenance company ? We'll never know because of the old boy network ! We do know the reset button was being pushed every 6 to 8 hours for a long period of time .

There should be an indepth study of how the turbine failed ! When was oil found in the gear oil ? This turbine was equipted with an oil sensor that shuts the turbine down !

If they do fix the turbine what's to prevent the same thing again! What was the horribly unsafe and wreckless management allowed for all those years !

Princeton ,Massachusetts gearbox issues costing town $600,000.00 per year. Princeton Ma has the higest electric rates in Massachusetts .

http://www.windaction.org/documents/36015
PMLD admits wind facility is losing money, raising rates
September 12, 2012 by Brian Allen, General Manager of PMLD

http://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/09/14/electricity-rate-among-highest-in-state/

filed: September 14, 2012 • Massachusetts
Electricity rate among highest in state

Multiple resignations over wind turbine ! An investagation into the purchase of the turbine has caused several resignations in the past few weeks ! The town has a report done by an engineer from Seattle ,Washington which has not been released to the public . WHY ?

http://www.eastbayri.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/wind-turbine-posturing-does-portsmouth-no-good/

Wind turbine posturing does Portsmouth no good

The town council is engaging in their fiduciary responsibilities to sort out a failed undertaking. Clearly fact based lessons learned and if possible an economic trade off of junk it vs fix it vs sell it must be determined. Unfortunately it appears those that performed the sales task and sold the Bridge (WTG) to the town and state tax payers and rate payers now are unable to engage in adult critical thinking and perform a root cause analysis! The referenced 400K$ profit is voodoo math e.g. a counterfeit claim. Proper accounting would have made provisions for a sinking fund for the every 3 to 5 year pull down and maintenance e.g. overhaul and refurbishment - repair cycle. No budgeted funding for proper training of operational staff and or a reliable Life cycle maintenance service. Finally the accounting portrayed took advantage of the bond payback schedule having been delayed at the onset per a devised schedule. As predicted over 4 years ago the US Natural Gas abundance at a significantly lower cost enabled low cost gas turbine generated electrical power. This defeated a defective national energy policy to drive the cost of all other forms of energy up while significantly subsidizing Wind and SOLAR. This is a form of economic terrorism and a product of Marxist Socialist policies. However the cult of true believers embrace their counterfeit rational. The rigor of a transparent after action report based on fact is still necessary.

Portsmouth is spending too much money ! The town is in the process of renting town owned land to private contractors to build another commercial wind turbine ! This is about just spending way too much of the taxpayers money ! Here's an interesting URL I came across about spending too much money in town governments :

http://www.capecog.com/capecog/2011/08/whos-the-biggest-megalomaniac-on-a-per-capita-basis-john-klimm-or-barak-obama-answer-indisputably-john-klimm-in.html

What "mistakes" were made by the Town of Portsmouth when they bought the wind turbine ? Was it the lack of any warranty ? Was it the failure to look into the finances of the company ? Was it a poor feasibility study ? How long had the start up company been in business ? Should the town required bonding for the turbine ? How about the lawsuit over the base of the turbine that put the turbine company out of business ?

The three million was millions less than any other company ! Why didn't anyone ask why ? In 2007 the turbine company had lost a major contract to provide a large amount of turbines to the Canadian government ? Why didn't anyone review the financial statements of the company ?

I have re-posted my post here from another blog authored by BILL

Bill Carson is intent in keeping his various blogs At The TOP. I'm here to help. SO: BILL: What happened at last nights Portsmouth Town Meeting...?? Where is the Wind Turbine REPORT you said would be presented in many of your previous posts......??? Just wondering

John - The Newport Daily News has already answered your question in the announcement of a scheduled 3 hour meeting prior to the election where information will be presented as to the choices available and the companion data that provides the tax payers and rate payers (state wide) the bases to realize an informed decision. I havce appreciated the information from Bill Carson vantage point as one of many that must be very carefully considered and factored into the ultimate conclusion to this unfortunate situation. Yes, today looking more like a classic text book group think. Yes, everyone owns the mistake of yesterday and now the challenge for today is to be capable of learning from that error so that tomorrow we will not repeated an exercise in an over dimensioned set of conditions with an undesirable outcome. .We must recognize the contributions made by well intended individuals and the community as a whole. Specifically the energy market and the viable solutions and disruptive technologies will continue to challenge us for generations. In our quest we must not subscribe to a pseudo political cult of true believers based on counterfeit agendas. The journey must and will continue with all a little wiser from the experience. Today our defective national energy policy and companion RI GA state missteps must be reformed as a first order of business. The robber barons and their costly kluge solutions must be dismissed.

Wind Turbine "Fuzzy Math" ! The turbine cost over three million dollars plus a maintenance contract and someone in town to push the restart button every 6 to 8 hours which equates to hundreds of hours of make-up vacation time !

Since it went into operational in March 2009, the turbine had netted $400,000 in profits for the town . This is correct but the turbine cost 3 million 3,000,000.00. The breakdown three years later is going to cost around $500,000.00 to repair the turbine.

So you have a net loss of $200,000.00 after three years and still owe 2 million on a bond ?

There are people on the PEDC that still think this is a great deal ? If they think it is a great deal why are they resigning their positions ? Why don't they stay and prove how great the turbine project mistake really was .

October 23 ,2012 Special Town Council Meeting for the third option ! Take it down !