Hull offshore project still on track

One of Hull's two wind turbines can be seen with Boston Harbor and the city in the background.

Good and bad news for wind power enthusiasts
Radar not a problem for new Hull project, another near Logan is sidelined

Special to cctoday by Jack Coleman

A four-turbine offshore project proposed for the waters off Hull remains in its initial planning stages and has not been canceled due to concerns about radar inteference.

But a four-turbine array to be built on islands in Boston Outer Harbor has been sidelined for that reason.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued a Determination of Hazard to Air Navigation for each individual turbine proposed for Long, Moon, Spectacle and Peddocks islands in September, citing potential effects to radar for planes flying to and from Logan International Airport.

The turbines would have been situated three to four miles from Logan, according to the FAA. The four-turbine array had been proposed in September 2005 by the Boston Harbor Islands Partnership, an alliance of federal, state and non-profit organizations that manage the islands.

Windstop.org's Cliff Carroll claimed the Hull project was scrubbed

"By the way, did you know that Logan/FAA just turned down four turbines planned just off Hull? The radar issue is not going away."
-  Cliff Carroll. windstop.org

Based on a claim made by Windstop.org founder Cliff Carroll, a staunch opponent of the 130-turbine Cape Wind project proposed for Nantucket Sound, it appeared that Hull's offshore wind farm had been shelved due to FAA concerns about radar.

In response to a report just released in Denmark showing negligible harm to the environment, marine life, local communities and tourism from the two largest offshore wind farms in the world, Carroll stated in an email outlining his criticisms of the report, "By the way, did you know that Logan/FAA just turned down four turbines planned just off Hull? The radar issue is not going away."

But according to an official with Hull's municipally-owned electric company, the town is proceeding with its plans to build four turbines about 1.5 miles offshore, on a shoal known as Harding's Ledge.

No "red lights" on Hull's new wind farm

"There are no red lights on this at all," said John Murdock, operations manager for the Hull electric department. "I think I'd know about it if the project had been canceled."

Carroll, contacted today about his assertion, said he was referring to the Harbor Islands' project, not the Hull proposal. "I have no idea what the status of that one is," Carroll said. "But if the Hull project had been canceled, that would be the lead story at windstop.org."

If built, the four turbines off Hull would generate 14-15 megawattts. Combined with two land-based turbines built near the high school and at the landfill in recent years, the half-dozen turbines would provide the town with roughly half of its electricity, Murdock said. (Follow this link to the hullwind.org website)

Hull hopes to have the offshore turbines up and running within four years; the next 18 months will be spent studying the benefits and drawbacks of the proposal.

"We know there's a lot of permitting," Murdock said. "We just don't know what they are yet." The proposed cost of $30-35 million is still "very preliminary," he said, and it has yet to be determined the type of turbine to be used if the project gets the green light.

Most of previous FAA stop-work orders now recinded

"There are no red lights on this at all"
- John Murdock, operations manager for the Hull electric department

Back in the spring, the FAA issued stop-work orders on a dozen wind farms under construction in the Midwest until more study could be done about turbines' effects on radar. Since then, most of the stop-work orders have been lifted.

No such order has been issued against Cape Wind, but opponents like Carroll maintain that radar is a potential Achilles heel that can sideline the project, potentially the nation's first offshore wind farm.

Back in January 2005, Gov. Mitt Romney, another staunch foe of Cape Wind, was touting alternative energy projects on the harbor islands as preferable to wind turbines in Nantucket Sound.

"It may end up being beautiful," Romney said of Cape Wind, as quoted in the Boston Globe on Jan. 22, 2005, "but let's try it somewhere else. Let's not do the first one in a place which is not only a tourist magnet worth extraordinary dollars to us, but, in my opinion, is a national treasure."

Jack Coleman is a freelance writer, editor, blogger and former media adviser to the pro-Cape Wind non-profit Clean Power Now based in Hyannis. He can be reached at polnotes@yahoo.com.