August 20, 2002 Tuesday

Windmills on the Water Create Storm on Cape Cod; Concerns About Environment, Tourism Fuel Mass. Debate

Pamela Ferdinand, Special to The Washington Post

EASTHAM, Mass.

On a clear day, Cape Cod beachcombers can see across Nantucket Sound to where blue sky and sparkling sea meet in a seamless horizon. During summers to come, however, their view may be interrupted by hundreds of twirling windmills dotting the distant waterscape like a profusion of tiny masts.

Proposals for what could be the nation's first energy-producing, offshore wind farms are brewing a fierce debate over their potential impact on tourism, fisheries, safety and the environment -- as well as the aesthetics of rotating blades on steel towers taller than the Statue of Liberty. The feud comes at a time of mounting debate not only about domestic energy supplies, but also over how to divvy up the ocean among competing interests while protecting one of the world's greatest natural resources.

Environmentalists sit on both sides of the argument: Proponents say wind farms, which already operate inland in 29 states, lessen reliance on fossil fuels and nuclear power. Opponents, who say they support renewable energy alternatives, contend private developers are trying to cash in on a public resource and are exploiting regulatory gaps by positioning projects in federal waters, outside local and state control.

"This is like an Oklahoma land grab," said John O'Brien, president of the Hyannis, Mass.-based Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound.

Buoyed by technological advances and falling costs, wind is the world's fastest-growing energy source. Giant turbines harness the wind's kinetic energy, powering a generator that pumps out electricity, which is then transmitted to power grids.

An estimated 50,000 wind turbines operate around the world; Denmark, one of the leaders in the field, relies on small wind power plants to generate roughly 15 percent of its electricity. Germany, Britain, Australia and Sweden have offshore wind farms, and Ireland recently granted permission for a 200-turbine offshore facility, one of the world's largest.

In the United States, where some states require utility companies to invest in renewable energy and producers receive tax credits, wind power makes up less than 1 percent of energy generated annually. Yet about $ 3 billion worth of wind power projects -- enough to supply 850,000 homes -- are being proposed or planned for the next several years, from a $ 55 million, 34-turbine wind farm west of Chicago to facilities off the coasts of New England, New Jersey and New York.

"The big picture is that the whole country is going to have to make the transition away from coal, oil and nuclear power," said James F. Manwell, director of the Renewable Energy Resource Laboratory at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Cape Cod, he added, could be a leader because of its location.

New England, after all, is no stranger to wind power. Vermont was home to the world's then-biggest turbine in the late 1930s, before it fell prey to design flaws (some early turbines were felled or disabled by high winds). And Cape Cod had more than a thousand working windmills in the 1800s; traces of them still exist.

The project generating the most controversy is a 170-turbine wind farm, costing $ 600 million to $ 700 million, proposed by Cape Wind Associates. The partnership said it is responsible for several of Europe's largest wind farms. Yesterday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved plans for a test tower off the cape to gather data about the project's feasibility.

Under the proposal, lighted towers would be placed six to nine football fields apart over 28 square miles in Horseshoe Shoals, about six miles from Hyannis and nine miles from Martha's Vineyard. The turbines would be connected to the Northeast power grid by cables buried six feet under the ocean floor. The facility would produce an average of 170 megawatts, or about half the electricity demand on Cape Cod, the Vineyard and Nantucket, lowering the overall price for energy in the region and saving an estimated $ 25 million per year, said company spokesman Mark Rodgers.

Another developer plans to build an even larger facility. Winergy LLC of Shirley, N.Y., is seeking a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers for one of four sites south of Nantucket for a maximum of 400 turbines on 64 square miles, said company President Dennis Quaranta. A third company, Texas-based Sea Energy Generation Inc., also expressed interest in positioning a small wind farm nearby.

Wind energy developers said Nantucket Sound is an ideal site because it has some of the strongest, most sustained winds and shallowest waters in the United States. Modern turbine technology has improved -- the blades are quieter than powerboats and rotate slowly, so they are unlikely to endanger wildlife, company officials said.

"The wind turbines of today are not your father's windmills. They're not even your older brother's windmills," Rodgers said.

The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound and other opponents, however, said the massive project represents "a permanent industrial facility in a pristine natural environment." Wind power, by its nature, is unreliable, these opponents added, and unlikely to benefit taxpayers or live up to promised production levels.

State and federal agencies have called for further impact studies, including reviews of risk to endangered migratory birds. Aviation and Coast Guard officials have raised safety questions, and fishermen worry that vast turbine tracts on navigable waters will impede their already struggling industry.

The area's $ 1.5 billion tourism industry is another matter, said John Donelan, associate director of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound and a Cape Cod native. "One of the things about Cape Cod that people come to is the empty horizon," he said. "They love the open ocean."

As important, many people say, is that unlike offshore oil and gas leases, there is no specific regulation governing renewable energy projects in federal waters, including the outer continental shelf, where these wind farms are proposed.

A bill in Congress would expand the Interior Department's jurisdiction to supervise renewable energy projects such as wind farms on the shelf, but critics such as Rep. William D. Delahunt (D-Mass.), whose district encompasses the cape and islands, said the bill is too weak. Clearly defined national standards are needed to address competitive bidding, compensation, public safety and environmental protections, they said.

"The reality is there is no process," Delahunt said. "There are no safeguards in place to ensure that our ocean is being managed properly."

Other lawmakers have stepped into the fray as well. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), whose family compound in Hyannisport sits on the coast, inserted an amendment into the energy bill requesting a National Academy of Sciences study of renewable energy projects on the outer continental shelf.

And in a letter last week to Les Brownlee, acting assistant secretary of the Army for civil works, Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.) said current laws were inadequate "to properly protect environmental concerns, the navigational safety of the public, and the financial investments of the private sector proposing projects and seeking permits for activities in outer continental shelf lands."

He ended the letter by saying, "My state, Virginia, being a coastal state, could well face a similar project in the future."

Developers and others, however, say critics are overstating the harms. They say that wind farms have boosted tourism in some areas and that an exacting permitting process is underway, involving federal, state and regional authorities.

The project, if approved, is scheduled for completion in 2005. In the meantime, environmentalists remain split on the issue, and the only consensus appears to be a widespread desire for more information. About 50 people attended a recent presentation here in Eastham, the site of the oldest cape windmill (built in 1680), and more forums are planned.

Helen Miranda Wilson, 54, a landscape painter born in Wellfleet, said she is worried about the lack of federal regulation and voter input. But her concerns do not extend to windmill aesthetics. "They really are beautiful," she said.