Worcester Telegram & Gazette Article

Town may harness the wind by winter
Princeton hopes to get turbines soon
Worcester Telegram & Gazette  |  July 3, 2006
Sandy Meindersma, Correspondent

PRINCETON— Jonathan V. Fitch, manager of the Municipal Light Department, is hoping new wind towers he has been wanting for three years at the town's wind farm on Mount Wachusett will be in place before the snow flies.

Last week, Mr. Fitch filed an application with the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative seeking to purchase two wind turbines that have become available because of a delay in another project.

"The turbines are exactly what we would have ordered," Mr. Fitch said. "It's a very popular turbine — it's reliable and spare parts are readily available."

The light department plans to replace the eight windmills that operated for years at the town's wind farm, providing about 2 percent of the community's electricity needs, with two 1.65-megawatt turbines that will generate close to 40 percent of the town's needs.

The efforts to install the new turbines have been stalled by several court cases filed by objectors to the project.

The light department's application to the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative proposes the purchase of the turbines for $5.28 million, with the cost to be incurred by the collaborative, Mr. Fitch said. He has also applied for financing totaling $6.3 million, financed at a rate of 5 percent over 20 years. The balance of the loan is to be used for site preparations and installation of the turbines.

If his application is approved, Mr. Fitch said, he is hoping to have the site work completed by October or November and the turbines installed shortly after that.

He noted, though, that turbines will not be installed during the peak foliage season. "We want to minimize the impact to our neighbor, DCR," Mr. Fitch said. "I've already told them that." The state Department of Conservation and Recreation manages the Wachusett Mountain State Reservation, which has an auto road to the summit with views of the wind farm.

Buying the turbines would enable the light department to complete installation about six months ahead of schedule, which would reduce the light department's expenses in three ways, Mr. Fitch noted.

"We will save roughly $200,000 a month in the raw cost of power," he said. "There is also the REPI (Renewable Energy Production Incentive) rebate, which I estimate to be worth about $180,000 per year, and the pollution credits, which are worth up to $380,000 if we were to sell them."

But Mr. Fitch is looking for even more savings than that. He previously filed an application with the U.S. Department of Treasury for a Clean Renewable Energy Bond. If approved, the bond would allow the light department to finance the cost of the turbines at zero percent interest over a period of 12 to 15 years.