john terry editorial - industrial wind

8/3/2019 John Terry Editorial - Industrial Wind

1/3

Editor, Cumberland Times-

News,

Last Saturday I attended the

open house at the new AESLaurel Mountain wind farm

which straddles the border

between Randolph and Barbour

counties in West Virginia.

Before a short tour of this wind

turbine facility that began

generating electricity in July,

there was welcoming talk by the

wind farms general manager,

John Arose, followed by a

question and answer session.

Frank OHara, from the

watchdog citizens organization

Allegheny Front Alliance, asked about a rumored bird kill of between 500 and 600

birds at the AES location. Subsequent accounts have reported that 484 birds were

killed at the AES facility, apparently drawn in under foggy conditions by lights at

the ridge top substation. Mr. Arose confirmed that a bird kill had indeed occurred

but didnt share any other details except that AES Laurel Mountain was cooperating

with the investigatingauthorities.

Further inquiry indicates that,

rather than the large raptors

usually associated with bird

deaths at wind farms, the birds

killed at Laurel Mountain were

mainly blackpoll warblers ontheir fall migration to South

America. I believe that this may

qualify as the largest

documented kill of its kind

associated with a wind turbine

facility. It would be another first

Open house at AES Laurel Mountain. Photo from haul road faci

north toward Mountaineer wind farm which can be seen from thi

location.

AES Laurel Mountain substation (right) where a large number of migratbirds were killed in one evening in October, 2011 several months after wind farm began operation..


2/3

for West Virginia which is nationally known for the thousands of bats killed at the

Tucker County, Mountaineer facility on Backbone Mountain.

http://www.duke.edu/web/nicholas/bio217/ptb4/batsites.html

http://www.wvhighlands.org/Birds/MountaineerFinalAvianRpt-%203-15-04PKJK.pdf

With the Pinnacle wind farm nearly ready to begin spinning in Keyser, and the AES

New Creek wind project beginning construction a few miles away, one wonders

what unintended consequence will occur next?

The Allegheny Highlands are not a suitable location for industrial wind power.

Government wind maps show only the highest ridges in very few locations having

ratings of #3 (fair) to #4 (good) on a scale that goes to #7(superior). Think of the

blue sky/white turbine pictures youve seen in the ads. Those photos are never in

mountains like ours for good reason. Observations of the operation of the wind

turbines at AES Laurel Mountain seem to illustrate the poorness of the wind

The Mountaineer wind farm on Backbone Mountain shown here is visible from the AES Laurel Mountainwind farm to its south. Roth Rock and Criterion wind farms, located in Maryland can be seen in the photosupper right corner.
http://www.duke.edu/web/nicholas/bio217/ptb4/batsites.htmlhttp://www.duke.edu/web/nicholas/bio217/ptb4/batsites.html


3/3

resource. Any one from Elkins can tell you that there are many days when several of

the 61 turbines are still. Oddly, the case is often that three or four turbines in a row

will be turning while others will have been randomly turned out of the wind. Some

days, by contrast, almost all may have been placed into service. Yesterday, on a

drive to town, half the turbines were idle and the one, out my window at home, spunfor three minutes around noon and again for an hour and fifty-five minutes before

being turned off again at 5:51pm.

Why should we care, as precious little of the wind generated electricity is consumed

in West Virginia and Western Maryland? It might be because a project like AES

Laurel Mountain is enabled by your taxes. In this case 30% or $72 million of the

cost of the wind farm was provided as a cash grant (not a loan) from the federal

government. States contribute to this delinquency by setting "Renewable Portfolio

Standards" with little more than good intentions as justification. Perhaps you mightwant to see a better return on such a large investment.

As for me, Im happy to see your dollars go to waste because when the air is still,

the constant drone of the turbines, like a distant, endless freight train, is absent and

the hills are, at least for a moment, quite once more and the birds fly free in safety.

John Terry, Montrose, WV

U.S. Department of Energy wind map. Note that only the highest ridges in theAllegheny Highlands rate from #2 to #4.

john terry editorial - industrial wind

Documents