ready to map ocean for possible wind farm sites

Chris Barrett

Mapping of the ocean area that could contain Rhode Island’s first offshore wind farm is kicking into high gear.

The Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) and the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography are preparing to formally sign a partnership to produce an Ocean Special Area Management Plan (SAMP) for a swath of ocean 20 to 30 miles wide stretching along the entire Rhode Island Atlantic coastline.

Depending on the team’s findings, a wind farm visible from Block Island shores could become a reality. And along with it could come a much-talked about, but never realized, power cable to the mainland.

During a press briefing last week, CRMC Executive Director Grover Fugate offered a glimpse of the mountains of data the state hopes to gather before approving an offshore wind farm that could generate 15 percent of the state’s energy needs, or 1.3 million megawatt-hours.

Although the state has authority to build a wind farm only in state waters — those within three miles of the coast — the team decided to enlarge the SAMP area to include federal waters in Block Island and Rhode Island sounds.

The federal Coastal Zone Management Act’s structure allows Rhode Island to deny applicants who want to build in federal waters that abut state waters if the state can demonstrate that the project is not consistent with state regulations. The SAMP will create those regulations as well as help identify a site for a wind farm within Rhode Island waters.

The SAMP, Fugate said, aims to deliver an objective review of the options for building a wind farm. A team of some 50 science and legal researchers will evaluate everything from wind patterns to the impact on fisheries and bird life to protecting transportation corridors and “historic views.” The plan will extend into federal waters a state system of classifying waters as those best for conservation, best for development and everything in between.

Largest SAMP ever

The plan is the largest ever undertaken in the state’s 30-year history of SAMPs. It will  involve personnel from the CRMC, URI, Roger Williams University School of Law, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the federal Minerals Management Service, part of the U.S. Department of the Interior. The 91-page proposal breaks up the SAMP into individual studies headed by URI researchers.

Fugate said that the addition of URI scientists added credibility to the study because the researchers hold no stake in the outcome — a sentiment echoed by one of the team’s principal investigators.

“Our job is to ensure this is an objective process,” Jennifer McCann of URI’s Coastal Resources Center  said. “We don’t have wind farm pro T-shirts.”

There is a possibility, the assembled group of scientists cautioned, that the SAMP could find no viable areas for a wind farm. There’s also no consensus on what wind turbine technology would work the best or how many turbines would be needed to reach the 1.3 million megawatt-hours goal, although estimates range between 80 and 140 turbines.

And while nothing is set in stone, Fugate is guessing that wind will top other alternatives such as generators powered by waves or currents.

“Wind energy — when you look in terms of renewables, in terms of offshore renewables — is the only one that has any commercial potential,” Fugate said.

Fugate said the team has set an “ambitious” timeline of completing its report by February 2010. The full council is then expected to hold public hearings and adopt the SAMP as a regulatory document sometime in the following summer.

“The entire U.S. is watching us right now to see how we do it and if we can do it,” Fugate said.

Wind farm winner awaited

The plan comes as a five-member task force appointed by the governor in June reviews bids from seven companies to build a wind farm somewhere in state waters. Fugate said the SAMP team is intentionally working independently of the task force to protect the SAMP group’s objectivity.

Andrew Dzykewicz, the state’s chief energy officer and a member of the task force, said the group would not wait until the completion of the SAMP in 2010 to award the bid. Dzykewicz said the task force was using the April 2007 RIWinds study created by consultants that identified potential wind sites and was confident it would match SAMP’s findings.

“We’re fairly confident things are going to mesh well; we look at this as kind of a building process, not starting all over again,” Dzykewicz said. “We want the developers to be working simultaneously with the SAMP development process.”

The winning bidder is expected to be picked in a few weeks and reimburse the state for the cost of the $3.2 million SAMP. The winner will receive no direct funding from the state. Instead, the state will help steer the company through a web of regulations.

In the meantime, SAMP team members said they are building elaborate systems to keep the public abreast of their work and gather public input. The team established a hotline (874-6015) and website at http://seagrant.gso.uri.edu/oceansamp to answer questions and provide regular updates.

“We realize this is a big issue,” McCann said.

Block Island benefits

Fugate and McCann said the team understands it is also a big issue for Block Island. They plan to solicit the town government’s input while putting together the SAMP and Fugate encouraged the island to borrow the team’s research.

Specifically he encouraged Block Island to hold off on laying a power cable to the mainland until the team completes its work. He said the SAMP would provide much — if not all — of the data needed to lay a power cable.

“They’d be better off playing off our work than trying to do it themselves,” Fugate said.

The study could also suggest a wind farm that includes a tie-in to Block Island, eliminating the need for the town or power company to install its own cable.

Fugate added that the team expects that work will meet with opposition. Other wind projects — notably one proposed off Cape Cod — have aroused environmental concerns and opponents who wish to keep their ocean views clear of wind turbines.