May 29, 2014
Rhode Island

Portsmouth takes up turbine issue Tuesday

By Jim McGaw | EastBayRI | May 28, 2014 | www.eastbayri.com

PORTSMOUTH – The town appears to be close to a solution to its wind turbine problem.

Voters approved a $3 million bond issue in 2007 for the turbine, located at the high school, but it hasn’t spun its blade since June 2012 due to a broken gear box.

At Tuesday night’s Town Council meeting, Council President James Seveney said the panel will host a hearing on the turbine at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, June 3, at Town Hall, after which a decision on the town’s course of action will be made.

The town has been in private negotiations with an as-yet unnamed company in hopes of getting the blades spinning again. The council needs to decide whether the town should borrow money to fix the turbine or take it down.

Town Planner Gary Crosby has said if the town does borrow money to fix the turbine, the operation won’t be the money-maker that it originally set out to be.

Any revenue generated will go toward the hired company’s operations and maintenance and to pay off the debt owed on the turbine. The rest will go into a “self-insurance fund” in case anything else goes wrong with the turbine, he said.


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2014/05/29/portsmouth-takes-up-turbine-issue-tuesday/