Lloyds of London claims First Wind Management team is incompetent

Maine's largest wind developer is UPC First Wind that is the Hawaii wind developer for Kahuku Wind project that remains offline (with $117 million loan guarantee) following a catastrophic battery storage facility fire with $2 million in damages. 

Lloyds of London filed a lawsuit on Nov 13, 2013 claiming First Wind's management team is incompetent.

First Wind battery storage contractor for Kahuku was Xtreme Battery.  Patrick Wood III is Director of Xtreme and First Wind, (SunPower, etc.,), and other publicly funded green schemes.   

Hawaii Free Press 10/09/13 'Playing with Fire": Kahuku to Install Molten Magnesium Batteries' bemoans the arrival of Ambri, of Marlboro, MA, and return of their partner, First Wind, “16 months after the inevitable Kahuku wind farm battery fire spewed molten lead across the sacred 'aina, First Wind, the company that couldn't see the August, 2012 fire coming even after two earlier fires, is doing it again."


http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/ID/11066/Playi...ticles | Archives | Search
Thursday, November 21, 2013 (clips)
Lloyds of London Lawsuit Reveals Story Behind Kahuku Windfarm Fires
By Andrew Walden  Energy		  
by Andrew Walden
Allegations in a lawsuit brought by a Lloyds of London Insurance underwriter raise questions about the competence of First Wind management personnel.  In a November 13, 2013 civil suit filed at Oahu's First Circuit Court, Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s London identifies Dynapower Company LLC of Michigan and Electronic Concepts Inc of Delaware as suppliers of allegedly defective electronic components blamed for three fires at the Kahuku site.
A fire described as ‘small’ lit up the Kahuku battery warehouse just seven weeks after the facility went into operation.  The lawsuit states that a second fire—also previously described by First Wind management as ‘small’--resulted in $2,000,000 in damages being paid out on the policy.  The suit also details the findings of an investigation into the first and second fires.
In spite of the substantial losses caused by the second ‘small’ fire and the investigation allegedly identifying the defective parts at faulty, First Wind apparently failed to take sufficient action to correct the problem.  A third fire broke out in August, 2012 spewing toxic lead smoke into the air for three days as the First Wind battery warehouse burned to the ground.
[cut] continue reading-
From the text of the lawsuit, here are the details:
7. In 2011, First Wind contracted with Xtreme Power Solutions LLC ("Xtreme"), a designer and manufacturer of energy storage and power management systems for power producers, utilities, and commercial end uses, for the manufacture of ten Dynamic Power Modules ("DPMs") for use at the Kahuku Wind Farm. The DPMs are critical components of First Wind's energy storage system, absorbing excess power or providing supplemental power, depending on the strength of wind gusts supplying the farm.
8. To complete the DPMs for First Wind, Xtreme purchased ten specially- designed inverters from Dynapower that contained capacitors manufactured by ECI. The ten inverters were installed in ten DPMs, which were housed in a building specially constructed by First Wind for the DPMs.
9. On March 1, 2011, the Kahuku wind farm went online. On April 22, 2011, one of the inverters caught fire, destroying one of the DPMs and damaging nearby equipment and fixtures.
10. On May 23, 2011, a second inverter caught fire. This fire destroyed a second DPM. First Wind suffered lost energy due to outages and derates following the May 23, 2011 fire.
11. Following the May 23, 2011 fire, First Wind submitted a claim to UNDERWRITERS under Section 5 (Operational Business Interruption) for business interruption losses that it suffered as a result of the May 23, 2011 fire.
12. UNDERWRITERS have made payments in excess of $2,000,000 to First Wind under Section 5, reimbursing First Wind for its losses that it sustained following the May 23, 2011 fire.
13. An investigation of the April 22, 2011 and May 23, 2011 fires identified the ECI capacitors contained in Dynapower's inverters to be the cause of the fires. The investigation determined, inter alia, the following:
  • the fire patterns in the DPMs show that the fire started in the capacitor area of the cabinets;
  • the materials used in the capacitors supplied by ECI were combustible;
  • new capacitors manufactured by ECI were shown to have had manufacturing defects;
  • the capacitors supplied by ECI were operating with a large spread in their operating temperatures;
  • there were observable defects in the capacitors manufactured by ECI;
  • the design of the Dynapower inverters was not "sufficiently robust" to operate in the environment and certain design steps should have been implemented; and
  • the ECI capacitors used by Dynapower were not properly rated for this application.
Background:
http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/ID/11177/Lloyd...

As those following Paul Gaynor of UPC First Wind know, Gaynor is a MA Public Official appointed by our Governor as a green policy Advisor, AND The Hawaii Wind developer tied to the largest asset seizure in Mafia history. Hawaii Free Press 'Wind Developer tied to Largest-ever asset seizure by antiMafia police' 
 
http://hawaiifreepress.com/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/ID/4008/Hawaii-Win...
UPC First Wind Paul Gaynor boasts the success of wind developer Italian Vento Power Corporation (IVPC) with Director Oreste Vigorito.  Adobe download files, now scrubbed from the Web, have been saved on wind warriors' hard-drives, and reveal that UPC that is First Wind affiliate and subsidiary is listed as Italian Vento Power Corporation IVPC.  
Does this group merit any pass to deface and deforest Maine's scenic mountaintops??? 

The Public Prosecutor at the Court of Italy has arrested the president of ANEV Oreste Vigorito together with other lords of the wind in a criminal investigation for conspiracy to commit a fraud on the subject of government grants in favor of wind farms.
 
Asset seizures in Italy related to wind fraud bear the seal of DIREXIONE INVESTIGATIVA ANTIMAFIA, and represent the largest seizure of Mafia assets in the history of the Mafia that include:
1.3 billion euros ($1.7 billion) connected to renewable energy farms. According to the AP, local police seized 43 wind and solar energy companies and 66 bank accounts belonging to Vito Nicastri — known as 'Lord of the Wind' for his role in developing his energy businesses.
 
The mega confiscation of goods is covering western Sicily, Lombardy, Lazio and Calabria. The seals were affixed to the assets attributable to Vito Nicastri, 57 years of Alcamo (Trapani), a leading entrepreneur in the field of photovoltaic power generation and wind power. Nicastri, involved, say the investigators, in many events, including criminal implications, it would be "reported consistently with members of Cosa Nostra." The economic and financial surveys, conducted by Dia, allowed, according to the prosecution to establish that the leading position in alternative energy from the entrepreneur was acquired thanks to the "conscious and constant proximity to the interests of crime organized. " Nicastri according to the Anti-Mafia Investigation Department "through a tumultuous dynamics of business has relations with Luxembourg companies, Danish and Spanish." For investigators "this close to the most well known Mafiosi, favored its transformation from a contractor electrician specializing in the development of power plants from renewable sources, giving it a leading position in the regions of the South." (Reuters).


Reference--
The Italian Parliament Senate of the Republic -125- Chamber of Deputies: (Energy page 10 forward)
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://www.camera.it/_dati/leg16/lavori/documentiparlamentari/indiceetesti/023/009_RS/00000008.pdf&prev=/search%3Fq%3DSUDWIND%2BVigorito%26start%3D20%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1920%26bih%3D964&sa=X&ei=M0FLUeyfDKq60QHl4oDwBw&ved=0CDoQ7gEwATgU

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Comment by Barbara Durkin on January 12, 2014 at 9:50am

Thank you, Martha and Mike.  As wind developers, UPC First Wind may be incompetent, but they excel at capturing regulators and lawmakers.  This is a highly sophisticated machine that preys on and exploits the less sophisticated local boards and communities.  Beware of those bearing gifts. 

Comment by Mike DiCenso on January 11, 2014 at 11:11pm
Great post. Thanks.
Comment by Martha Thacker on January 11, 2014 at 2:48pm

Thanks Barbara for this most important news.We in Maine have been seeing the incompetence for some time now as I am sure you have. It has been so frustrating to see our illustrative legislators throw out the red carpet as a reward for this reason....on top of the mafia connection. First Wind's SEC reports under risks have spelled out possible lawsuits in the future for illegal activities that might backfire.Now that First Wind has finally lost a lawsuit, nobody wants to be associated with them. But we remember who our politicians and civic leaders were who bought the  entire wind package so easily and quickly and did not want any dissent from Mainers.

The tiny town of Burlington, pop. around 300 were the last of five small townships to sign on for Rollins wind farm. They had an unusual selectman who was trying to actually help his constituency. So for his efforts ,the town got a turbine after 20 years, a fire dept. , and and old folks home. Stetson I and II got nothing. Because we are in Unorganized Territory. But our illustrative leaders said nobody lived out here anyway... not to worry. It is the poor, old and uneducated that they target in siting possible wind farms. Such treatment can go on without objection when you have that mentality for  a business model/ means of governance. And lots of money to spread around for gifts.

U.S. Sen Angus King

THE UNTOLD STORY OF RECORD HILL WIND

The Untold Story of Record Hill Wind, continued

 

Maine as Third World Country:

CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power

 

Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.

Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT

******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********

(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/

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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law

Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future

"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."

https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/

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