Navy looks to ease turbine concerns

VISUAL EFFECTS: In this simulated view of Coaster's Harbor Island from Cypress Street in Newport, two turbines are visible in the upper right. / COURTESY NAVAL STATION NEWPORT
VISUAL EFFECTS: In this simulated view of Coaster's Harbor Island from Cypress Street in Newport, two turbines are visible in the upper right. / COURTESY NAVAL STATION NEWPORT

The controversy that’s surrounded wind turbines on Aquideck Island this year isn’t stopping Naval Station Newport from moving ahead with plans for the largest wind-power project in the state.
At the end of last month, the Navy released its latest environmental findings on the proposed project, which is intended to generate roughly one-third of the military installation’s total electricity. And the base kicked off a public comment period that ran through Feb. 15 designed to see what the community thinks of the project.
What they hear is unlikely to all be positive.
Newport leaders say concern is already percolating among residents about the visual juxtaposition of large, spinning blades and historic homes nearby, such as those in the Point neighborhood at the foot of the Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge.
“What we have seen so far is very preliminary, but our concern right now is we really don’t want to see [turbines] from an historic area such as the Point,” said Newport Mayor Henry F. Winthrop. “We certainly support sustainable energy, but everything has to fit aesthetically. If they were going to put them out in the east passage, where we couldn’t see them from Newport Harbor, it would be different.”
While Rhode Island saw utility-scale, wind-power projects completed in Providence and North Kingstown last year, 2012 was a rough year for wind power in Newport County.
Newport passed an ordinance banning small, residential wind turbines in 80 percent of the city, while Portsmouth is still debating what to do with its ailing high school wind turbine and Jamestown killed its long-planned, municipal wind project. The East Bay Energy Consortium was in crisis over its future for much of the year.
But unlike many wind-power debates, it’s unclear what power Newport, Portsmouth, Middletown, Jamestown or the state have to dissuade the Navy from going ahead.
Local zoning and land-use regulations don’t apply to the federal base and the turbine project is part of a larger U.S. Defense Department renewable energy initiative and the Navy’s goal of getting half its shore-side power from alternative sources by 2020. “It is a strategic goal of the secretary of the Navy to reduce fossil-fuel consumption and carbon emissions and studies have shown that of all the Navy’s shore-based facilities Newport has one of the best wind resources,” said Lisa Rama, spokeswoman for Naval Station Newport.
“We could do it if we want, but that is not the intent,” Rama said about ignoring local complaints. “We want to maintain the good will we have with the community and we meet regularly with the city manager. There are going to be concerns over the [view], but we hope we can mitigate them.”
Since it opened an experimental torpedo station on Goat Island in 1869, the Navy’s presence in Newport, and Rhode Island, has been significant.
The service is the third-largest employer in Rhode Island and estimates that it contributes $2 billion annually in economic activity.
Exactly how many turbines, how large and where they will be located are still unknown.
The Navy wants to generate 9 megawatts of electricity from the project, an amount equal to the station’s demand on the least power-hungry day of the year. The size of the project is calculated to produce as much energy as possible without ever making more than the station needs, to avoid sending energy back into the grid.
The Navy now spends $12 million per year on electricity and the 9-megawatt project is projected to save $3 million annually.
Rama said once the Navy decides to go ahead with the project, it will put its requirements out to bid and see what private contractors propose as the most- efficient and least-disruptive configuration.
The Navy has studied 12 potential sites on the Newport base for wind turbines, with the most southerly of them, at Katy Field, already thrown out for its visual clash with historic properties.
If the Narragansett Bay Commission’s new three-turbine, 4.5-megawatt project in Providence is used as an example, then six turbines would seem reasonable to double the output in Newport. The Bay Commission turbines are all 356-feet tall and produce 1.5 megawatts each.
A Navy presentation on the turbine project last spring suggested a hypothetical setup of six, 1.5-megawatt turbines.
Findings released in the new environmental report suggest a potential conflict between the turbine sites likely to receive the most wind and those likely to be acceptable to residents.
Tests showed a location at the end of Coddington Point – on the south end of the base closest to downtown Newport – had a net power output of 438.9 kilowatts, while one near a tank farm in the north end of the base registered 353.4 kilowatts.
According to the Navy study, most of the environmental issues connected with wind turbines – including threats to birds, bats, mammals and archeological finds – should not be a problem on the Newport base.
Noise will almost entirely be below the ambient level generated by traffic, waves and boats, it said.
A “flicker” analysis showed 71 buildings will be able to see the waving shadows of the blades during certain hours, but did not raise that as a concern.
The study acknowledges that turbines will cause “visual effects” to the surrounding historic landscape, and said the Navy was working with the R.I. Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission on unnamed ways to mitigate them.
In addition to Newport, the sprawling naval station also borders Middletown and Portsmouth.
Portsmouth officials could not be immediately reached for comment about the Navy’s plans.
A spokeswoman for Middletown Town Administrator Shawn Brown said there has been no reaction from town elected officials to the plans.
The Navy first proposed a wind-turbine project in January of 2011 and thought then the planning process would take nine months.
Rama said the Naval Station hopes to have the remaining details of the environmental study complete by this summer.
If Navy brass in Virginia concludes that the project will have no significant negative environmental impact and sign off on it, the project should go out to bid next year and could be operational in 2015, Rama said.
“We are optimistic that [a negative impact finding] will not be the case as the studies are not indicating any significant negative impacts on the environment,” Rama said. “We are continuing to collaborate with state and local agencies as we near completion of the reports.”

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