USA - Test wind tower slated for White Crest Beach

By September, the Wellfleet Alternate Energy Committee, which was created in April 2005, hopes to see the University of Massachusetts install a temporary meteorological tower in the parking lot of White Crest Beach. The tower would collect data and measure the wind speed for one year to determine the feasibility of using this site for a wind turbine. Selectman Mike May, chairman of the committee, said that if and when it comes to the point that the town puts up its own wind turbine, it could pay almost all the cost to power Wellfleet's municipal buildings

"We want to test the wind speed at White Crest Beach to see if there is enough wind there to support the idea of a wind turbine," May said, after a Tuesday meeting with Town Administrator Tim Smith. The committee last September presented the selectmen five possible locations where a temporary meteorological tower could be set up. White Crest Beach was its their choice. Jim Sexton, a member of the committee and an expert on wind turbines (he cofounded a company that built and installed 900 wind turbines in California, Oregon and Hawaii), said the committee hopes the meteorological tower will be in place by the end of summer. Selectmen last fall agreed to ask the Massachusetts Technological Collaborative to assist the town in putting up the test tower.

A letter was sent, and now the town needs to sign an agreement with the University of Massachusetts to borrow a tower anemometer, which would measure the wind velocity and wind direction at the test site. Then the committee, with the help of the collaborative, will evaluate that data to determine if this site would be appropriate for a wind tower. The town seems divided on the possibility of putting up a 240-foot wind turbine, Sexton said. And even if the meteorological tower goes up, it does not follow that the town will put up a wind turbine. But if the town purchased a turbine similar to what Hull has, it could generate 1.5 million kilowatt hours a year. They've been told the town pays $127,000 in utility bills for all town buildings, and if a turbine could generate that many kilowatt hours a year, it would cover $100,000 of the town's utility bills, Sexton said.

If the meteorological tower results show that it would be feasible to use this site for a wind turbine, that turbine would be put up 1,000 feet inward of the parking lot, on town owned land, which has a heavy growth of scrub brush, pine and oak. The committee already has asked a Seashore botanist to look at this area to see whether there are any endangered plants. The botanist said broom crowberry, which is an endangered plant in the state, is on this site. But clearing the area to put up the tower "will enhance the growth of this plant, provided we don't trample it," Sexton said.If meteorological tower does go up, the committee will then have much work to do before a wind turbine becomes a reality in town.

"We will have a year's worth of data to look at, and during that interim, we'll be exploring our options of what to do with that site, whether we'll put the wind turbine up ourselves or if we'll lease the land to a developer who will put it up. Either way, zoning bylaws will have to be changed and there will be a lot of work to do."