Alternative Energy... in our back yard?

Township seeks comment on pursuing wind energy options

By Charles O’Neill
Harbor Light Newspaper

Friendship Township resident Pete Cummings likes a good breeze. You can often see him skimming across frozen Little Traverse Bay in his ice boat. He powers his home, and soon his workshop, in part with the wind, using a wind turbine. Now Cummings, on behalf of Friendship Township officials, wants to know if other folks are interested in catching some wind.

Cummings said he was “appointed” head of the township’s ‘wind committee’ last year, given his expressed interest in the subject.

Cummings traveled with some “fellow wind enthusiasts” last November to McBain, Michigan, to visit two wind turbines, the first ona site where Heritage Sustainable Energy hopes to have at least 20 turbines in operation within the next 10 years.

In a letter (click here to read letter) detailing his findings for Friendship Township residents, Cummings noted that the township owns a remote, 80-acre parcel in the woods that could be home to similar “green energy” wind turbines.

The McBain turbines are among the largest in physical size and power output in the United States, according to news accounts. Each turbine stretches up to 475 feet at the top of the blades and can produce power for up to 900 homes, one news report noted.

The visit impressed Cummings, already a wind power advocate.

“I should point out that I live with no connection to the power companies. I am ‘offgrid,’” Cummings continued. “ I produce part of my power with a small wind turbine. “

“Two generalizations are evident: if the turbine were a little larger and the tower a little taller, I could be fossil fuel independent. My house is very near the Friendship Township Hall. I dare say the wind blows at least 90-percent of the time.

“The trick is to have your wind machine high in the air and of the largest practical turbine diameter to take advantage of 10 to 15 mph winds which are normal at my location. Wind turbines tend to give their maximum production when the wind blows 29 mph. The higher your turbine is, the more likely it will see higher winds, even when the air is still at ground level.”

Cummings suggested that Friendship Township could be home to a potential wind turbine site.

“Friendship Township is largely covered with trees and this includes its acreage south of the Township Hall. Few people here, myself included, would like to see land cleared to accommodate a large wind turbine installation. However, wind turbines set on remote property which has trees but also has good wind exposure above (the tree line) should be an ideal location for winddriven turbine generators. People would barely notice them.”

Cummings noted the primary purpose of his letter to township residents was to share information gleaned from his visit to the McBain turbines. He added, however, that there are bigger, global issues involved.

“Energy production today is usually carried out from large centralized generating plants. Large-scale production delivers economy, but distribution and pollution are problematic. To decentralize power production using clean alternatives (where practical) makes perfect sense to me,” he wrote.

“If … the financial end of constructing them really works, why wouldn’t every township with at least one good site be hurrying to install them? The wind is free and clean.”

Cummings outlined some of his findings in his letter, including some of the financial investment costs involved.

He also noted that such wind turbines, if they were to be constructed in Friendship Township, would not necessarily provide power for Friendship Township residents. The power would be added to the “grid” via some kind of purchase and distribution agreement with an existing power company.

These wind turbines are not cheap. Cummings said one of the turbines he looked at in McBain costs some $5 million with additional engineering costs involved. Other costs related to getting the power to the “grid” could be another $1 million.

In McBain, Heritage Sustainable Energy, a private company, undertook a lot of the risk and is building that wind farm with plans to ultimately have some 20 to 30 turbines there. Cummings noted other investment options could be to have the township issue a “Request for Proposal (RFP)” whereby a private contractor would lease from the township the land and build the system. Or townships can float bonds to finance the building of a public power system.

“Many people are not going to understand this kind of expenditure,” Cummings wrote in his letter. “However, take a look at the cost of building a new nuclear plant or, when its life useful life is over, decommissioning it.”

In a 2008 article in the Traverse City-Record Eagle (Feb. 24, 2008, www.record-eagle. com), Martin Lagina, a principal owner of Heritage with long-time business partner Craig Tester, said there are three necessities in creating a viable wind energy project.

“The first is a sufficient wind source, the second is support from the surrounding community and the third is proximity to major transmission lines,” the article noted.

Asked in a telephone interview whether this exercise was a bit “pie in the sky” for Friendship Township, Cummings said that is what he and others in the township are trying to determine.

“We need an indication as to whether people want us to start trying to find out if this is the real thing or not,” he said. “Having gone to McBain and seen it in place, this is the real thing. An investor came forward and leased a piece of property there to build these turbines.”

“But if there is not a direct and immediate benefit to township residents, you do wonder if anybody cares.”

Cummings said a similar idea got shot down in the township a number of years ago - victim, he said, of the ‘not in my back yard’ mentality.

“But there seems to be some renewed interest now. Maybe it is a consciousness thing, that we need to start doing our little part to reduce pollution. There could be a long term monetary benefit to the township, but that is a little nebulous right now.”

“It is possible that with the changing energy climate (and changing requirements), companies like Wolverine Power, Great Lakes Energy, or Harbor Springs Electric Department may be interested in…” purchasing such renewable energy locally to meet Michigan’s energy laws, Cummings noted.

According to state legislation, by the year 2015 ten percent of the electricity generated in the state will have to come from alternative energy.

In a recent interview published in the Traverse City Record-Eagle (Feb. 9, 2009), James Clift, policy director for the Michigan Environmental Council, said 70-80 percent of new alternative energy sources may be wind-related.

“With 10 percent of the electricity going to alternative energy by 2015 (in Michigan), I think wind resources will get the lion’s share,” Clift said in another article published in the Traverse City Record- Eagle, Jan. 30, 2009.

The 11-member Wind Energy Resource Zone Board was created in December by the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC). According to the MPSC website, that board’s responsibilities include “consulting with local units of government in the study of wind energy production potential and the viability of wind as a source of commercial energy generation in this state and the availability of land in this state for potential utilization by wind energy conversion systems.”

The board is required to issue a report detailing its findings no later than June 2, 2009.

In addition, there will be pressure from the federal government to spend a significant portion of the Obama administration’s stimulus package to become more energy efficient and create alternative energy, Clift told the newspaper.

Asked about the noise these turbines generate, Cummings called it a “roar similar to what the wind sounds like.” He noted that the Township site where he suggests these turbines could be sited is extremely remote and likely could only handle two of the size in McBain. The site is also near an existing power company feeder line.

In concluding his letter, Cummings encouraged a broader view in deciding the importance such a project might have for the community and the world.

“I believe it is time that we begin using energy sources that are available to us free, compliments of ‘Mother Nature.’ We need to accept the amount of power therein and work with it.

“I am tired of comparing the amount of energy in wind or solar to that in a barrel of oil. If we are slowly being washed into the oceans of as we combust fossil fuels, who cares?

“Please understand that I enjoy using electricity as much and probably more than most people. We should be relying on renewable for primary power and our large power plants as backups,” Cummings said in concluding his letter.

Apparently newly elected President Barack Obama agrees. From his inauguration speech:

“We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. All this we will do.”

(To read Pete Cummings complete letter on his findings regarding wind turbines, go to www.harborlightnews.com, a link will be included within the text of the online article and on the side of the main page under “Community FYI”. To express an opinion on the matter, which Cummings said the township is really looking for, contact Pete Cummings at 231-526-5579 or via email: pete@ceeflow.com).

Additional information from

-Traverse City Record-Eagle, www.record-eagle.com

-Michigan Public Service Commission: www.michigan.gov/mpsc

This is part of the February 18, 2009 online edition of Harbor Light Newspaper.

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