The Wind Industry has been pushing a new term called community wind. It is a nice try by the commercial wind industry to trick communities and their people in to believing that they are not promoting the HUGE monster turbines that are 400 to 500 feet tall, and are instead pushing for smaller wind turbines. In their attempt to deceive us they will use pictures of a small turbine, such as the small, 100kw turbine that is “on display” at Appalachian State University. There is a Facebook page promoting this deception by Austin Hall and Appalachian Voices.
The wind turbine at ASU could be argued to be the size of a large residential wind turbine, designed for a home or farm. In some cases, a community wind turbine can start at 100kw, so if you want to call the ASU turbine a community wind turbine, tell the truth and make note that it is the SMALLEST community wind turbine.
Nice try, ASU, Appalachian Voices, Austin Hall and the Wind Industry, but we will not be fooled. The wind industry web page makes the following statement.
“Community Wind…..
Locally-owned, commercial-scale wind projects that optimize local benefits. Locally-owned means that one or more members of the local community has a significant direct financial stake in the project other than through land lease payments, tax revenue, or other payments in lieu of taxes. The term Community Wind refers to the method and intention of development rather than the size of the project.”
So, it has nothing to do with the size of the turbine. A community wind project can include any size turbine including the 400 to 500 foot monsters. Big wind would prefer that it include their metal monsters, as that puts more green in their pockets, and that green would be my money and your money…..subsidies paid for by the tax payer. And then BIG WIND sends the money to fund their overseas operations and companies. In other words jobs in other countries not here in the USA.
Also, we know to watch out for the bait and switch technique, where communities are led to believe they will put up 30 smaller turbines, and they come back and tell you, after it it too late for the community to save their land, that they will put up fewer turbines, but they will use the larger 2MW or 3MW turbines. We know the bigger the turbine, the more problems with noise, health, bird kills, environmental damage and more. We will not be hoodwinked by BIG WIND.
The following video shows the very small residential/smallest community wind turbine at Appalachian State. The deception is also explained, using THE SCREAMING WEASEL wind turbine at ASU. This video is by Keepers of the Blue Ridge.
