LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME

[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]


Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

Get weekly updates

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Paypal

Donate via Stripe

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Falmouth awarded $1.8M for turbine troubles 

Credit:  Falmouth rewarded for turbine troubles | By Lauren Dezenski, CONTRIBUTING WRITER | Cape Cod Times | March 27, 2014 | www.capecodonline.com ~~

BOSTON – Falmouth is on track to receive up to $1.8 million over roughly the next 15 years to help offset money the town lost in reduced wind turbine operation.

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, or MassCEC, approved the relief funds by a vote at the agency’s board of directors meeting Wednesday. The agency has worked with Falmouth on the wind turbines at the town’s wastewater treatment plant since 2009.

“It’s somewhat complicated, but I think it represents an effort to strike a balance between helping to mitigate the financial impact the town is incurring on an ongoing basis,” MassCEC CEO Alicia Barton said at the meeting in downtown Boston. She called the plan a financial reward to the town of Falmouth.

The $1.8 million includes a one-time $500,000 donation to the town’s wind turbine reserve account. However, MassCEC’s donation depends on voters approving a $300,000 contribution to the fund at a town meeting April 7.

A November court order that cut Falmouth’s turbine operating hours from 16 hours a day, seven days a week, to 12 hours a day excluding Sundays is expected to cost Falmouth between $250,000 and $280,000 annually. The lost revenue was specifically intended to pay for wind turbine maintenance and operations, Falmouth Town Manager Julian M. Suso wrote in his budget message Dec. 23.

“With reduced hours of operation and a loss of one-seventh of revenue, we don’t make up for that major loss of revenue without a subsidy,” Suso said Wednesday.

Falmouth also could receive up to $85,000 a year for roughly the next 15 years from MassCEC’s guaranteed purchase of renewable energy certificates, depending on certificate price. MassCEC agreed to pay no more than $45 for the certificates representing 1,000 one thousand kilowatt-hours of renewable energy.

Wednesday’s agreement amends a 2009 agreement between Falmouth and MassCEC in which the agency agreed to prepay the town $1 million for renewable energy certificates generated by the project.

MassCEC is a publicly funded agency created by the Green Jobs Act of 2008 and seeks to foster growth of the Massachusetts clean energy industry.

Although Suso would not speculate about what would happen if the town decided against the $300,000 allocation, he did say he was “guardedly optimistic” about the outcome.

“Town members will see the logic in operating this in a business way,” he said. “The turbines are owned by the taxpayers and we need to be responsible to use these one-time available funds.”

Source:  Falmouth rewarded for turbine troubles | By Lauren Dezenski, CONTRIBUTING WRITER | Cape Cod Times | March 27, 2014 | www.capecodonline.com

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Funding
   Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)
Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI TG TG Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook

Wind Watch on Linked In Wind Watch on Mastodon