Bill
Allows Wind Turbines On R.I. Farms
By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI.org
News staff
PROVIDENCE — At least
one Rhode Island farm hopes to harvest more than just corn. The owners of Stamp
Farm in Exeter recently testified in support of a bill that would allow it and other
farms to erect wind turbines.
Several farmers, most
of whom are involved in the ongoing wind turbine siting dispute in North
Kingstown, debated the bill at an April 11 hearing. William Stamp Jr. and
William Stamp III, who helped get the bill drafted, said wind turbines deliver
badly needed revenue to farmers. Rhode Island farms, they said, are constrained
financially by a lack of land, escalating costs and short growing seasons.
 |
| Artist's conception of what the Stamp Farm turbine might have looked like. Under the proposed bill, it would have had to be set back much farther from Rt. 2 |
“The primary purpose
of this bill is to help their income,” said Al Bettencourt, director of the
Rhode Island Farm Bureau. Farmers earn some $5,000 a month leasing land for a
wind turbine, he said. Like cell towers, wind turbines raise initial objections
due their appearance. But “I think over time people will get used to it,”
Bettencourt said.
An animated Stamp Jr.,
said a single turbine like the one at the North Kingston Green supplies
electricity for 500 homes. “It’s taking a resource and uses it as something
that is productive and useful for the community,” he said. “This is energy for
everyone.”
Opponents of the bill
argued that wind turbines diminish neighboring property values. The fall zones
and setbacks outlined in the bill are also too short, they said. Richard
Schartner of Schartner Farms supported North Kingstown’s 2010 moratorium on
wind turbines. He’s in the process of buying land near Stamp Farm.
“I feel it would be a
huge detriment to my land value if the turbine went up," Schartner said.
Matt Richardson,
co-owner of a hops farm next to Stamp Farm, objected to the setback
requirement.
The state Department
of Administration (DOA) submitted a letter of concern to the House committee
regarding the bill. The state is still drafting statewide standards for wind
energy siting.
 |
| This turbine at NK Green is up and running with no local complaints. |
Wind turbine developer
Mark DePasquale lives 220 feet from the 411-foot-high turbine he owns and built
in the North Kingstown Green. DePasquale and his company, Wind Energy
Development LLC, were denied a permit to build a turbine at Stamp Farm by the
town's Planning Board in 2011. The North Kingstown Green turbine was approved
prior to the moratorium.
At the April 11
hearing, DePasquale noted that the recent controversy surrounding three
turbines in Falmouth, Mass., shouldn't be compared to newer turbines. The
Falmouth turbines, he said, were built too close together. Health complaints
and concerns about falling turbines are unfounded, he said.
“Turbines don’t fall
over,” DePasquale said. Wind turbines, he claimed, also don't cause wind
turbine syndrome. “If you believe it, you’re going to have it. It’s in your
head," he said.
Municipalities can
save money by buying long-term fixed electricity-pricing contracts from new wind
turbines, just as Coventry did for a proposed wind turbine project on a
hazardous waste site.
But North Kingstown
Town Council member Kevin Maloney argued that “the bill is just an end around a
community that did not want (a wind turbine).”
The bill was held for
further study.