Case turbine hopes dashed again
SWANSEA — The third time wasn’t a charm for the school district’s attempt to secure funding for a proposed wind turbine at Joseph Case High School.
The district has applied three times in two years for a grant to fund a lengthy feasibility study and possible construction of a turbine near the school. Its most recent request was turned down in late January, Superintendent Stephan Flanagan told the School Committee recently. Flanagan said an initial wind study at the school showed the wind speed there was half the level required to move the application forward.
Flanagan said he contacted Tyler M. Leeds, project manager for the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust, after learning of the rejection to see what the school could do to gain approval. The news was not encouraging.
“He basically told me three strikes and you’re out,” said Flanagan, who released a proposed budget for fiscal 2010 with a $111,000 increase in utility costs. “He said we don’t meet the minimum threshold and that it wouldn’t be cost-effective. Unfortunately they are the only show in town.”
The Renewable Trust grant would have paid for up to 80 percent of a more extensive feasibility study for the wind turbine, up to $40,000. Flanagan said the only location that makes sense for a turbine is at Case High School, where the district spends approximately $100,000 each year in electricity.
Flanagan said the cost of funding a single wind turbine — from $800,000 for a 600-kilowatt model to more than $1.4 million for an 900-kilowatt turbine — would not be feasible.
Flanagan said MRET officials told him the school should look into solar panels, but School Committee Vice Chairman Ellen Furtado didn’t feel the turbine possibility was dead. Furtado said MRET could do more to help the district qualify for the grant funds.
“Did we get the full survey they said we were going to give us?” Furtado said. “I’m not going to let this go.”
Furtado said a turbine installed several years ago at Massachusetts Maritime Academy saves the school an estimated $300,000 in electricity costs each year. She also mentioned the the recent installation of a wind turbine in Portsmouth, R.I., a coastal town similar in makeup to Swansea.
By Jay Pateakos
Herald News Staff Reporter
3 March 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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