Almost overnight, a local debate on the use of wind power turbines in Kent County is starting to gain more and more interest. The Spy will be covering this sensitive issue over the next few months, but for those uninformed, we have provided a short summary on the arguments in favor and against the current proposal by Virginia-based Apex Clean Energy Corporation to install up to 45 wind turbines in eastern Kent County with an anticipated height of almost 500 feet.
This video is approximately one minute in length
Leslie Moorhouse says
This is very interesting……….what ever happened to the recommendations of the panel that investigated wind turbines for Kent??????? From what I understand, they recommended against commercial towers in favor of smaller residential towers. It won’t take very many rocket scientists to figure this one out.
Jay Falstad says
This is an ill conceived project that will fundamentally change the look of the upper Eastern Shore. It also has nothing to do with electric, but has everything to do with energy subsidies. Stand firm Kent County residents and fight this thing!
Editor says
This subject will be on the agenda of the County Commissioners meeting to be held Tuesday, March 24 at 6:00 PM. The public is invited for their input.
Commissioners’ Hearing Room,400 High Street, Chestertown MD
Judy Gifford says
I appreciate your efforts to start a dialog. The negative impacts of these proposed 55 turbines which will be over 600 feet are numerous. The adverse health effects of these industrial turbines on humans, domestic animals and wildlife are well documented. The degrsdation to over 5,000 acres of prime farm land is unconscionable.Please eduacte yourself in this important issue by visiting http://www.keepkentscenic.com.com
JANET CHRISTENSEN says
You need to be careful here about what Apex says, and what is and isn’t reality. First the large turbines they are putting in are likely to be in the 2 to 3 MW range. That is at max power, but as we all know the wind is fickle. The actual output is less. A 2 MW Turbine will have an output of about 400MW. This number comes from the US Energy Information Administration calculations for land based Turbines. You can do the math. Nowhere near 130MW. Let it also be understood that in August, the demand for power is at a peak.
In August in Kent County on most days there is little or no wind. Apex is not in the business of hanging on to these fields.Past statements by Apex have described themselves as latch-key wind field producers. 30 years is a long time, and much can happen to a company that makes promises to the community. Had Apex held the public meetings they alluded to in the March 2014 news piece that was in the KCN, these are the questions that we could have ask:
1. What do you base your 10 permanent employees on and how do you know they will live in our county…have you identified said individuals?
2. What are the exact revenue numbers you are alluding to, and how did you reach your calculations?
So in the end the only thing that Apex presented as the pros that is verifiable and accurate is that a handful of farmers with leases on their property stand to benefit from this project. On the other hand, all of the points against the turbines are correct. What is not mentioned in the video is the following: Baltimore, New York City, Washington DC, and Los Angles will not have industrial wind turbine fields in their parks. The bulk of power is consumed by them, but they will not have to look at them in their neighborhoods.
Danger to eagles, bats, raptors, vultures and migrating songbirds. The effect on tourism. The industrial park is right between two Chesapeake Country National Scenic Byway and will be seen from the National Park Service’s Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail. There are multiple sites on the National Register of Historic Places within the placement field of the Turbines. Finally their website does not, that I am aware of, tell you that they do not care what Kent County residents might decide about this process because they are going to the State government to ask the PSC to take away your power to have a say.
GET THE FACTS http://WWW.KEEPKENTSCENIC.ORG
John Lysinger says
I recommend extreme caution in accepting anything that Apex’s sales representatives have to say as “fact”. Among their many untruths is that the wind turbines “do not effect property values of nearby homes”, when there is irrefutable evidence that nearby homes can become virtually uninhabitable and nearly worthless.
Victims of other industrial wind turbine projects testify to all sorts of adverse health effects, often summarized as “Wind Turbine Syndrome”. Apex denies that WTS exists, but it is an affliction official recognized by the CDC. It is associated with sleep loss, migraines, nausea, vertigo, blurred vision, unsteadiness, difficulty reading, remembering and in thinking spatially.
These turbines have even greater impact on birds and bats, which they kill in large numbers. Apex refers to these deaths as “limited”, but we know that to be untrue, especially when referring to eagles and other raptors.
I moved to Chesterville 30 years ago to rescue an National Register of Historic Places property and to enjoy the piece and quiet and the community of Kent County. Now, if Apex is successful, my house will be surrounded by at least seven 500 foot towers, all within one mile. Between the noise, the “flicker” and the destruction of the view-scape, my home will become uninhabitable and virtually unsalable, as would those of all of my neighbors. The land-owners that chose to deal with Apex will certainly gain financially but at the cost of destroying our community. They should think about that before committing themselves and their heirs to 50 years of life under these destructive machines.
John Lysinger
Mike Waal says
Just thinking out loud, it would have been better I think for the Spy to have added and listed the links to the Web sites for both William Graham’s Keep Kent Scenic, and Apex’s corporate Web site to allow everyone who reads the Spy the opportunity for a full read, rather than take a snippet of info for publication. Janet Christensen included a link to Keep Kent Scenic in her comment. Here is the Apex Web link. https://www.apexcleanenergy.com/about
The Spy is, generally speaking, a Chestertown online news resource. Chestertown comprises only about 25% of the County.
While all Kent Countians will be significantly impacted, Crumpton, Galena, Kennedyville, Massey and Millington residents especially need to become aware and educated about the issue.
No news media is doing that great a job of getting the facts out to the Kent County community about this issue.
There are so many Kent Countians that are significantly uninformed and ill informed about this project.
Apex discusses that the W/Ts would be anywhere from 1/4 mile to 1/2 mile apart. With a goal of 49 Wind Turbines [not the 35-45 as published in their materials] with the potential of being up to 1/2 miles apart encompasses a land mass area of 16 square miles, almost 6% of the land mass of the County.
However, I think I read somewhere in Apex’s sales/marketing/promotional materials that this project could probably only encompass 6,200 acres. If this is true, well that is just under 10 square miles. Still a substantial land mass of Kent County.
What concerns me a lot is the Renewable Energy Legislation that was introduced and passed by the O’Malley administration that mandates an achieved renewable energy goal of 20% by 2022, seven years away. Land-Based Wind [spelled Wind Turbine Farm] is a substantial element in accomplishing the goals established. How will this Legislation impact what the PSC does, their decision making? How do our District 36 Legislators handle this mandate in fighting the fight? The General Assembly I think ends April 13th, less than a month away. Can they write, get thru Committee and then have both Chambers of the General Assembly pass Legislation that would reverse/reduce the LBW goal?
I would think Apex would be using that Legislation as part of their overall strategy. Who knows, they may have helped write it.
Let’s see; 49 aviation marker strobe lights flashing in the night atop these monoliths; the Whoosh, Whoosh, Whoosh, Whoosh sound of propellers as they rotate with a diameter of more than a football field; the highest peak of the propellers standing as tall as a New York City 40 Story Sky Scrapper Building. A lot of Kent Countians have never experienced sky scrappers. The Transamerica Tower [also know as the Legg Mason Building and as the USF&G Building], is a 528 foot tall skyscraper. It is the tallest building in Maryland, and can be seen from Tolchester Beach and Rock Hall Municipal Beach on a clear day, a distance of about 20 miles. These 49 W/Ts will be standing 497 feet tall, just 31 feet less that the tallest building in Maryland. You want that?
Just sayin’
Keith Thompson says
Editor,
Let me focus on this statement from Mike Waal…
“What concerns me a lot is the Renewable Energy Legislation that was introduced and passed by the O’Malley administration that mandates an achieved renewable energy goal of 20% by 2022, seven years away. Land-Based Wind [spelled Wind Turbine Farm] is a substantial element in accomplishing the goals established. How will this Legislation impact what the PSC does, their decision making? How do our District 36 Legislators handle this mandate in fighting the fight? The General Assembly I think ends April 13th, less than a month away. Can they write, get thru Committee and then have both Chambers of the General Assembly pass Legislation that would reverse/reduce the LBW goal?
I would think Apex would be using that Legislation as part of their overall strategy. Who knows, they may have helped write it.”
I think Mike nails it here in that is a local issue that should be settled by Kent County and not by the State of Maryland, but the issue here isn’t over whether or not this is a good idea for Kent County but whether or not Kent County will even have a say in approving or disapproving this. In a way, many of the folks who are complaining about this have inadvertently created the problem by creating a mindset that their agenda is so important that they must seek state or federal action in order to force recalcitrant localities to adhere to their agenda. Is it any surprise that this agenda attracts investors determined to influence the regulators enforcing the agenda and figuring out how to make a profit off of it? The irony here is that individuals and groups who wouldn’t think twice about forcing counties to adhere to state regulations the counties find harmful to their economy or way of life are suddenly very interested in backing Kent County’s rights here. It’s interesting to see people change their political stripes when they’re suddenly on the wrong end of someone else’s political agenda.
I think the biggest question that should be asked is why did Kent County apparently get targeted as a place to put this project?
Mike Waal says
Mr. Thompson,
A possible answer to your question is that Kent County has one of the smallest Budgets of the 23 Counties and 1 City in the State.
I think we have the 3rd smallest. Therefore, I would think that Apex Clean Energy would believe we have the least amount of “disposable” revenue to financially support a County initiated legal battle against them and their project.
Note that Somerset County was also a target County, with a 25 Wind Turbine Farm at 500 feet, by another energy company. Somerset has the smallest County budget I believe.
Population maybe another key factor in their analysis. Kent County is the least populated County, and third smallest in geography. I would presume they would have calculated the potential push-back, as happens with just about everyone of their projects, and the ability of a County to mount a strong opposition effort on their own.
We’ve beat back other initiatives and projects; Walmart comes to mind, as does a regional landfill and an Upland Dredge Spoils Dump Site.
No doubt we can here, may be difficult, but with the Commissioners and the District 36 Legislators support, we should be successful.