First Wind scraps plans for first Mass. project

First Wind Holdings Inc. will not seek to build a wind farm on a mountain in Brimfield, Mass., due to weaker-than-expected wind resources, the company said.

The Boston-based company, which develops, builds and operates wind energy farms, had faced stiff opposition from local residents since introducing the project to the town last June. The project would have required a local zoning change that only a vote by residents could have enacted, signalling the project might have been impossible for the company.

But the opposition didn’t ultimately factor into the decision to pull out, First Wind spokesman John Lamontagne said in an e-mail.

“For any possible wind project, we need to collect about a year’s worth of wind data before making a determination whether or not to move forward. It was very early in the process in Brimfield,” Lamontagne wrote. “After reviewing almost a year’s worth of data, we determined the site didn’t meet the requirements we need to move ahead with a project.”

The opponents of the project “raised concerns and created a lot of confusion about wind energy,” he added. “But we’re not going ahead with the project because the project didn’t meet the requirements we need to move ahead with a good wind energy project.”

First Wind — which has built wind farms in Maine, New York and Hawaii — had been seeking to build its first wind farm in Massachusetts with the 10-turbine, 30-megawatt project in Brimfield.

But a local opposition group, No Brimfield Wind, formed soon after First Wind’s arrival in the town. Opponents argued the project would bring industrial development to a pristine mountaintop, cause property values to plummet and create noise and visual impacts, such as a shadow “flicker” caused by spinning blades.

During a visit by the Business Journal to the town last fall, Brimfield selectmen Chairman Thomas Marino said previously that he had wanted to accept $30,000 from First Wind to study the project, until hearing from 50 opponents who spoke during a three-hour meeting on the project.

“The passion was amazing,” Marino said at the time. “The entire message was, ‘We don’t want your money, go home.’”

Last October, First Wind scrapped plans for an initial public offering after the company was unable to get the amount of money from investors that the company was looking for, CEO Paul Gaynor said previously. The company expects to complete private financing in the range of $300 million in the first half of 2011, which would enable the company to develop wind projects into 2013, he said.