Block Island divided on erecting own land turbine

Nothing appears to divide people as much as development, particularly when the proposal involves a towering, spinning wind turbine in the middle of a pristine island. As debate continues over an eight-turbine wind farm off the coast of Block Island, local residents are embroiled in their own deliberations of whether to erect a single turbine at the island transfer station.
An outgrowth of discussions from the town’s Electric Utility Task Group, the proposal has sparked contentious town meetings, a lawsuit from transfer-station neighbors and seemingly endless amounts of ink expended on letters to the local newspaper, the Block Island Times. In July, the debate took on a more pressing timeline after the state awarded the town $750,000 to build the turbine. Accepting the money would commit the town to moving forward.
“The [turbine] on land is a sticky situation,” said Ken Lacoste, a member of the Town Council and the island’s Energy Plan Committee.
The idea of a community wind turbine has made the rounds on Block Island for years. Lacking a connection to the mainland electric grid, the island relies on diesel generators that spew pollution into the air and produce electricity at a price tied to the gyrating oil market. The question of a new source of power reached a fever pitch two years ago when the retail price of electricity for residential customers hit 61 cents a kilowatt-hour. That was the second highest in the nation and almost six times the price paid by mainland Rhode Island customers.
Soon town officials were suggesting a serious look at erecting a wind turbine. The Town Council asked the Electric Utility Task Group to look at the idea and later formed another group, the Energy Plan Committee, to come up with an island-wide energy plan.
Barbara MacMullan, a member of both groups, said the latest concept envisions the town building and owning a 600-kilowatt turbine at the transfer station. (By way of comparison the wind turbine at the New England Institute of Technology in Warwick is 100 kilowatts.) The town would sell the electricity to offset its electric bill that can reach as high as $500,000 a year. Last year, the Town Council voted 3-2 to rezone the transfer station to accommodate a wind turbine. Neighbors responded this year with a lawsuit in R.I. Superior Court, which has yet to take up the case. Neighbors say the zoning flies in the face of the town’s comprehensive plan that generally favors open space and views of nature.
“It’s a very hot topic but it’s a very controversial topic,” said Block Island Residents Association President Bill Penn. “It boils down to the impact on [opponents’] viewsheds and their perceived impact of their property values.”
Arlene Tunney, one of the plaintiffs, rattled off a host of other concerns during an interview. She said no one has showed how the turbine would connect to the island’s limited electric grid. Nor has anyone addressed concerns that people dumping trash at the transfer station would be safe from a runaway blade. And she wonders what will happen to all the electricity when the turbine’s output exceeds the entire island’s use.
“For me the viewshed isn’t that important,” she said. “It’s the noise, the flicker, the danger and the cost.”
There is no consensus about whether a wind turbine would lower Block Island’s electricity costs. Cliff McGinnes Sr., a co-owner of the Block Island Power Co., argues rates would go higher. The town would see electric bills decrease and perhaps cut taxes but the power company’s infrastructure costs would remain stagnant.
“If the town takes all the money away from us then that burden will be spread among the customers,” McGinnes said.
MacMullan called such an argument a “misperception.” The island would benefit because it would need to import less costly diesel fuel, sparing all customers from the fuel surcharge, she said. Neither side has run an economic analysis, but the town wants to, MacMullan said. What makes commissioning a study tricky is the proposal by Deepwater Wind to construct a wind farm 3 miles off the island’s southeast coast. The plan includes a cable linking the island to the mainland electric grid and that opens a Pandora’s box of questions. Would the island still need its own turbine? Could excess electricity produced during the sleepy winter months be sold to the mainland grid? Would the political will to install the turbine in the face of neighborhood opposition remain if electric bills tumbled?
“The world that we are looking at is so different if we have Deepwater and a cable than if we don’t,” MacMullan said.
Regardless of whether the offshore wind farm happens, town officials have vowed to at least continue studying the idea and explore other locations besides the transfer station.
“This is to save the town money,” First Warden Kim Gaffett said. “Deepwater Wind is just producing power. That’s great. I love it but the town’s still going to be paying its electric bill.”
She pointed to Portsmouth as a model, where the town expects to save thousands of dollars a year in electricity costs thanks to a 1.5-megawatt turbine near its high school.
Gaffett also notes the Deepwater Wind farm is far from a done deal. The approval of a contract key to the construction of the farm has been appealed to the R.I. Supreme Court. And opposition to the farm from island residents has been mounting. Many spoke at public hearings against the approval of the contract and an informal group placed ads opposing the project in the local newspaper.
Penn, from the residents association, said the concept of wind power – offshore or on – appeared a flash point with no signs of going away.
“You’re either for it or against and there’s no in between,” he said. •