URI developing guidelines for land-based turbines

Kelly L. Anderson

09/17/2011

(Corrected, Sept. 22)
The Rhode Island Renewable Energy Siting Partnership, a state effort being overseen by the University of Rhode Island, is inviting the public to see how land-based wind turbines look, operate and serve as a key source of renewable energy.
The hope is that the tours will help assuage fears of some opponents who don’t want such turbines in their backyards, or worry they represent a health risk.
The first tour was scheduled for Sept. 22 at Portsmouth Town Turbine, Portsmouth High School, and 120 Education Lane, Portsmouth. The next is 5 p.m. Oct. 20 at the New England Institute of Technology turbine, 2500 Post Road Warwick. The tours are free and open to the public, although space is limited.
Portsmouth and Warwick are just two communities considering investing in renewable energy infrastructure. The URI researchers, who are in the fields of energy, research and planning, will develop guidelines that can be used by the state’s cities and towns to manage wind-turbine development. They also will make state and municipal energy-information accessible to the public through an online energy database.
But not everyone is happy with the research, nor the possibility of having wind turbines. One group says the turbines can even cause epileptic seizures in some when the sun is blocked, said Jennifer McCann, a URI researcher who also worked on a nationally recognized study that inventoried the waters off Rhode Island with an eye toward facilitating development of offshore wind farms.
The renewable energy partnership is not tasked with making decisions on where land-based turbines should be located, but providing information so fact-based decisions can be made, she said.
Kenneth F. Payne, administrator for the R.I. Office of Energy Resources, says his office has directed about $1.2 million in federal money toward the project.
“The thought is that when you have a very small, densely populated area, that means that we don’t have very many vast, open areas where things are very far away,” he said. “We have to make decisions on where things go very carefully,” he said. “We want good projects to go, in my view, in great spots. A bad location is not a good idea.”
Payne says the tours should go a long way in helping people support such renewable energy projects.
“A lot of opposition and reservation overall has come from people who think it may be a good idea, but [just] not in my area,” he said. “Some people think if it fell over, it might [land on their] house. Rhode Island is so small, so we have to make very solid choices of where things should go.” The partnership also wants stakeholders and group members to be able to provide their thoughts, concerns, issues and input, as well as learn about renewable energy research in the state. They also will be able to preview tools the project is developing to assist in the analysis of land-based wind, water and solar energy issues.
The tours are part of the project’s first phase, to identify and assess issues of concern regarding the siting and management of land-based renewable energy, as well as existing research and data.
Phase two, to be completed in January, will provide technical responses to the issues of concern during phase one.
And phase three involves completing research products and developing specific siting and management guidelines for land-based energy.
Chip Young, a senior fellow at URI’s Coastal Institute at the Graduate School of Oceanography, agrees with Payne on the importance of placement of the wind turbines.
The tours seek to borrow a page from the stakeholder process that was part of the R.I. Ocean Special Area Management Plan project. Fishermen, boaters, developers, environmentalists and others were invited as early as 2008 to join its stakeholders’ group.
While not everyone agreed on the final plan that ultimately won approval from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the process did allow for all voices to be heard.
“Stakeholders are always critical in the public-policy process,” Young said. “It has nothing to do with politics, development of finances. It’s what’s going to provide the best science available for making decisions.”
The renewable energy research project includes:
• Developing wind-resource assessment and facility-siting methodology.
• Acquisition, analysis and distribution of wind-profile data at selected sites.
• Assessment of potential electromagnetic field interference with communications systems.
• Assess the capacity for solar power in Rhode Island as well as power facilities at existing dams.
• Development of the Rhode Island Energy Data Web Portal. •