The little pinwheels that you guys are talking about in Hull and elsewhere have absolutely nothing to do with the Nantucket Sound project. The proposed turbines are 460 feet tall. that is just 6 stories short of the Prudential building. Also, those little prop-jobs, that look like Piper-Cub propellers, are not the models to be be used. The Cape Wind project's blades will be wide and over 100 feet long, like the models used in Ireland. Think of an old-fashioned electric fan blown up to massive proportions. Also never mentioned is the electric transfer station, the size and shape of an oil rig platform to be built on the "farm". The entire grid will be located 3 to 6 miles off shore between the cape and islands, covering 24 square miles.
Cape Wind has kept repeating the mantra that the project will produce "15% of the region's power needs". Region? New England, right? Wrong. Those figures are based on optimal conditions and the "region" is Cape Cod.
The other argument implied is that the wind is "free" so the electricity will be cheap! Wind powered turbines are actually the most expensive way of producing power. Just ask the residents of Palm Springs, where they get the majority of their electricity from the desert farm and pay the highest rates in the country. Land based props require constant maintenance, ocean based require even more.
Adding insult to injury, Cape Wind has successfully been using the old Class Warfare tactics of employing support from the bitter and angry. "It's all the richest of the rich who oppose this humanitarian project because they just want to hurt The People". And the fact that Ted Kennedy is opposed does not help the perception.
So why would Cape Wind want to invest all their money in this project if it is so bad and so inefficient? Because they ain't. They are investing OUR money in the form of Federal subsidies that had amounted to over 100 million dollars, but are probably now over 1 billion, what with us being all stimulated and everything. The site? Free. The expensively produced power? By law has to be bought into the grid. And just like condo developers in Florida, Cape Wind will write itself a long term maintenance contract. That's where the big bucks are. This is a massive scam as we have not seen since the 19th century railroad land-grab.
On top of everything else, the last viable economic engine in Massachusetts, tourism, is primarily centered on the Cape. We would be turning Nantucket Sound, one of the most historical waterways in the country, into an industrial power plant. The response to this complaint has been that tourists will flock to see the pretty windmills (that also are supposedly invisible below the horizon) and everybody will make even MORE money! Does that sound familiar? Remember when the anti-smoking crowd said that banning cigarettes in nightclubs would mean that people on respirators could then go out dancing and clubs would make even higher profits? They could verify those assertions if only they could find a club still open for business.
