Savings may be blowing in wind

With the costs of electricity rising, and budgets tightening, more North Shore communities are looking at building wind turbines to help power schools and other municipal properties.

In Swampscott, officials are considering powering their new high school with a wind turbine. In Lynn, a turbine may partially power the waste-water treatment plant. Gloucester, Newbury, and Rockport also have started renewable energy committees to focus on establishing viable wind turbine sites.

''With energy costs doubling this past year, there's a lot of money you can save for your town or city," said Sam Cleaves, regional planner for the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, which has helped promote wind power on the North Shore.

The new $53 million Swampscott High School -- scheduled to open next year -- is one of four locations the town has identified as potential sites for a wind turbine. The other locations are Stanley Elementary School, the middle school, and Phillips Park.

''It's hard to imagine that this isn't the future if you live along the eastern coast of Massachusetts," said Swampscott Town Administrator Andrew Maylor.

The push for wind power on the North Shore began three years ago when the Metropolitan Area Planning Council began an outreach program in local communities. Armed with maps that detailed potential wind turbine sites, council representatives began meeting municipal officials. The council also held two forums to help educate the public about wind power.

Maylor said Swampscott would work with the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, which receives funds from a renewable energy fee added to utility bills, to shorten the list of four sites to two possible locations. If the selectmen concur on the sites, then two 165-foot meteorological stations would be placed at the sites for a year to measure wind speed and direction.

In the coming years, a 260-foot steel tower could join the tanks of liquefied natural gas, car dealerships, and factories on the Lynnway. The proposed wind turbine, with three blades, could save the city millions of dollars in electrical bills, city officials say.

Two years ago, Lynn City Councilor Loretta Cuffe O'Donnell met with Bob Tina, the director of operations at the Lynn Wastewater Treatment Plant, to discuss a wind turbine powering a portion of the plant. In August 2004, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative installed a 165-foot meteorological tower to measure wind speed and direction at the treatment plant on the Lynnway.

The tower came down after a year, and last month, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative issued a feasibility analysis that concluded that there was enough wind -- more than the average of 14.5 mph during the year -- for a wind turbine at the site.

''It looks very promising," said O'Donnell, who lobbied other city councilors to pass an ordinance last month that would allow wind turbines to be erected in the city. ''Hopefully, we will save between $400,000 and $500,000 a year at the plant."

For a wind turbine to be built, the City Council would have to issue a special permit, and the Lynn Water and Sewer Commission, which operates the waste-water plant, would have to approve the proposal. Also, the state would need to endorse the project because the waste-water treatment plant is located on filled tidelands.

The 1.5-megawatt turbine would cost $2 million to build, and would be expected to last about 25 years. O'Donnell estimated that the turbine could be paid off within four years, providing the plant with another 21 years of electricity at no further cost to residents.

Kristen Burke, wind siting and community planning manager for the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, said a wind turbine at the site could rise 260 feet from the ground. The noise from the turbine would come from the wind going between the three blades. But given its proposed location in an industrial zone next to the ocean, the noise may not be an issue, O'Donnell said.

Burke plans an additional study that will research how a wind turbine could affect birds and bats in the area. Also, she'll prepare a financial analysis of the project that would detail how much the wind turbine would cost and how it would be best installed.

While the City Council unanimously approved the wind turbine ordinance last month, Mayor Edward J. Clancy Jr. is undecided on the proposal. For more than two years, Clancy has been negotiating with National Grid to relocate its above-ground power cables behind the Lynnway. Clancy is uncertain whether a wind turbine would fit into projected real estate development projects behind the Lynnway if the cables were moved.

While Gloucester is still undecided about possible sites, Rockport has focused on possibly locating a wind turbine at its school complex on Jerdens Lane. And, this month, Newbury residents formed a wind task force to identify potential sites for a wind turbine. ''The town needs a source of revenue and needs to cut costs," said the committee's chairman, Gene Smith. ''There's no question, there's wind around here."