VINALHAVEN — The top executive of the company that installed wind turbines on Vinalhaven island said his experts disagree with a Maine Department of Environmental Protection consultant who concluded that the turbines violate nighttime noise limits.

Fox Islands Wind CEO George Baker said his experts reviewed the same data and concluded that the three turbines do not violate state standards.

State law sets a 45-decibel limit. Fox Islands believes the discrepancy lies with naturally occurring noises such as wind rustling through the trees, not the turbines.

“There’s a disagreement among the experts about what the data says is going on,” Baker told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Baker said it will be a difficult issue to resolve.

Even if experts conclude that the wind turbines are to blame, slowing the turbine blades to lower the noise level by a couple of decibels may not appease critics, Baker said.

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Meanwhile, slowing the blades too much could counteract the project’s goal of reducing electricity rates, which have been lowered by 5 cents per kilowatt hour on Vinalhaven and North Haven islands, Baker said.

“The turbines can simply be turned down more. The consequence is that they produce less electricity at night, and electric rates on the islands will go up,” he said.

Art Lindgren, a critic who lives a half-mile from the turbines, said Fox Islands Wind has refused to open its books to prove how much money is being saved.

Transmission companies are required to open their books to the Maine Public Utilities Commission. But there’s no such rule for like privately owned electricity producers.

 


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