You’ve got to be kidding me.
Liberals won’t fight it because it would look like they weren’t “green”
Conservatives won’t fight it because it goes against them being in support of business.
So it looks like we will end up with huge visual pollution on the waterfront.
A 250 foot tall windmill right down in the inner harbor is going to look ridiculous, lol.
This from the same company that stopped carrying lobsters at their supermarkets because they called it inhumane to hold them in tight quarters (or something ridiculous along those lines)
Whole Foods Bans Sale of Live Lobsters
Is a two million dollar windmill really going to pay for itself? Or is Gloucester going to be used in a green marketing campaign to show the rest of the country that Whole Foods Is a green company even though it doesn’t make financial sense. Judging by what they did with press releases during the ridiculous banning of the sale of lobsters because they don’t like them being kept in tight quarters, I fear it’s more about marketing and less about the real financial or green impacts of the ginormous (it’s a real word now) visual pollution that will be erected and loom over our harbor.
You gotta give them credit though, if they give the fishermen a payout we will surely end up with this thing stuck up our ass.
Why should we even have building codes with height restrictions? 250 feet in the air is what, seven times higher than the current building codes at that location? Fuck it, we might as well build high rises while we’re at it.
Kudos to the Whole Foods Marketing Team- they’re no dummies.
Good Morning Gloucester 
Hey, don’t lump us all in there! This liberal likes sustainable energy sources, but also smart development and they don’t have to be mutually exclusive. I wouldn’t be in favor of the ugly, huge propeller turbines since the wind turbine technology is improving so fast in alternate form factors such as the windspire and windbelt.
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I am not against placing windmills in remote areas, but the media usually quote figures for electricity generation that are wildly optimistic.
Here in the UK, every new ‘wind farm’ is greeted with delight by the news media, with no real examination of the facts and figures being quoted.
In a hundred years, our great grandchildren will wonder what on earth we were thinking of, ruining the landscape with these monstrosities. By then, of course, the truth about exactly how much electricity you can ACTUALLY generate from windmills will have been exposed, and we’ll have realised that they might have been helpful, but they certainly weren’t the answer to the environmental problems we had to face.
This stuff is starting to get the feel of a new religion to me, where you can’t say anything against it because that makes you some sort of heretic. And the so-called journalists just happily repeat whatever they are told, with no critical examination or investigation whatever…
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Sorry, I guess in a hunderd years they will be our great great great grandchildren, maybe?
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I think that every energy project should be judged on it’s merits and it may not make sense to put a large turbine at this location.
However, I also think that if we are going to get serious about kicking fossil fuels we will need to get used to all sorts of arguably ugly structures that generate energy from renewable sources. Think about how ugly power lines, paved parking lots, and sewage treatment plants would look to our not so distant ancestors.
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I agree Rob.
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How about biogas treatment plants, that convert the sewage to energy?
A pig farmer in the Netherlands is doing just that:
http://green.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090531/ap_on_sc/eu_netherlands_pigs_and_co2.html
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I am all about finding green energy, but a windmill doesn’t seem like the best solution. Are there even enough studies that show the possible negative effect on the marine environment? Would they be killing more fish than they sell? They should start with solar panels and finding a way to turn their waste into fuel for their plant and delivery trucks.
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Why not line 10 Pound Island or the Breakwater with windmills?
I don’t really see what is so ugly about them. It would be nicer if they weren’t there, but I feel the same way about supermarkets and as the commenter noted above, parking lots, power lines, etc.
When you burn coal or oil, that pollution lasts for a long time and gets into places that you can’t see. If the windmills turn out to be nothing but worthless eyesores, it isn’t as if they can’t be torn down.
In a City that needs good home-grown jobs, lest it turn into another bedroom community, it is probably a good idea to let a business experiment with this kind of technology.
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About 300 yards away on the hill in the Blackburn Industrial Park where Varian wanted to put one would make sense to me. It just doesn’t make sense right down at the head of the harbor.
250 feet is roughly 7 times higher than the tallest allowed building on the harbor. Why have building codes for height if something 7 times as high and visually imposing is allowed?
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Where were you when the wind turbine ordinance was going through the public hearing and council approval process?
(I agree with you btw. But the council will just ask “where were you all at the time?”)
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Yep, the further out to sea we go — the more power gets produced….
Before I thought it’d be best to throw all these wind turbines in the middle of North Dakota… Or out in the farmlands of Texas, but after doing some research… You need to have the wind-power generated close to the population using the power, because a lot of energy is lost in the miles of wire..
http://tinyurl.com/MAwind
This map shows the results of a windpower study and the best places in MA to put towers…
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The Varian turbine, I believe, is about 600 feet high. It will completely dominate the skyline.
Wind power belongs far out at sea and it certainly does not belong on the harbor.
Wind power is heavily subsidized by the government and no business would put in a wind turbine without your taxpayers dollars paying for half of it as it does not make economic sense.
It makes less sense for taxpayers to be paying for ruining their own view for the benefit of a private business and not even for the benefit of the city.
If we let even one turbine in many are sure to follow.
They do make some noise. They do kill a few birds (but more bats).
They do sometimes, depending on where the sun is shining, create a pulsing glare.
They will have to have flashing light beacons on the top.
The “wow”factor with people saying “isn’t that cool” wears off quickly and then people realize that they are just more visual clutter.
In short I think they are something we do not need to embrace.
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