DEM Breaks Ground on Wind Turbine in Narragansett

The state Department of Environmental Management (DEM) has broken ground on the construction of a wind turbine project at Fishermen’s Memorial State Park and Campground. The 117-foot-high, Northwind 100-kW wind turbine being installed at the campground will supply about half of the facility’s electrical needs. When completed this fall, the turbine will power all the campsites at the park, providing renewable energy to about 17,000 campers a year.

The wind turbine will be situated in an upland area of the park, away from the shoreline, and will be set back from neighboring homes, campsites and roadways. The size of the turbine is in scale with the setting of the park, according to the DEM.

Manufactured by Northern Power Systems of Barre, Vt., the white turbine will be built on a single tower within the enclosed maintenance compound. It is expected to produce about half of the 330,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity used annually to run the lights, electric sites and sewage pump stations in the park, according to DEM officials. Along with the wind turbine installation, DEM will display an online “green energy dashboard” that shows the amount of clean energy being produced and the corresponding carbon offset by that production.

The turbine is one of three alternative energy projects under development by DEM in Rhode Island state parks and beaches. In May 2010, DEM unveiled the first wind turbine, at Salty Brine State Beach. That 10-kW wind turbine has out-performed estimates and has been well received by beachgoers, according to DEM officials. The Salty Brine turbine has supplied about 10,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity to the beach pavilion in the first nine months of operation; initial estimates projected that it would take a year to produce that amount of electricity.

A similar 10-kW wind turbine is being installed at East Matunuck State Beach in South Kingstown as part of the ongoing construction of a new bathhouse and beach pavilion set to open next Memorial Day. 

Funding for the $688,010 project at Fishermen’s Memorial comes from a combination of settlement funds, federal stimulus grants and state money — $399,917 is being provided from a multi-state settlement agreement with American Electric Power Service for federal Clean Air Act violations; $150,594 from federal American Resource and Recovery Act funds via the State Energy Office; and $137,500 is being provided from the state Economic Development Corporation’s Renewable Energy Fund.

Republished with permission from ecoRI.org.