Barnstable denies college wind project

WEST BARNSTABLE - The turbine's parts have arrived from India and sit quietly in an unused hangar at Otis Air National Guard Base. Materials to construct a platform for the 600-kilowatt Elecon Turbowinds turbine intended for Cape Cod Community College have been stored away on the school's West Barnstable campus, and a once gaping hole there has been filled with dirt.

Following a decision this week by the Barnstable Old King's Highway Historic District Committee to reject the wind-energy project, it is unclear whether the turbine will ever find a home at the college.

"There was nothing about the proposal that was unattractive," attorney Bruce Gilmore said of the 243-foot-high turbine.

Gilmore, who represents the college and the state, said the project "was as environmentally sound and sensitive to the concerns of neighbors as one could imagine."

The college and state Division of Capital Asset Management, which is responsible for the project, are appealing the 3-1 decision Wednesday by the local committee to the regional Old King's Highway Historic Commission, Gilmore said. The committee's decision must be appealed within 10 days of it being filed with the town clerk, according to the historic commission's regulations.

The project was expected to save the college roughly $160,000 in energy costs each year, Gilmore said.

Benefits from such projects are specifically mentioned in the law that regulates the historic district that spans six towns north of Route 6 from Sandwich to Orleans, he said.

Section 10 of the Old King's Highway Regional Historic District Act states that the committees "shall consider the energy advantage of any proposed solar or wind device."

"I don't know what we could have done differently," Gilmore said.

The decision to reject the project follows several months of debate over whether the turbine on state-owned land required approval from the historic district committee at all. The state had moved forward with the project, including preparations of the site near the college's tennis courts, but halted that work after the historic committee insisted it had the right to approve or reject the project.

Committee members have argued that the turbine is not in keeping with the district's character and that its approval could set a precedent for future projects.

When reached by telephone yesterday committee chairwoman Patricia Anderson declined to comment on the project.

If the regional historic commission rejects the appeal, project proponents can appeal that decision in district court.

So far the state has spent $1.28 million of the project's $2.1 million cost, said Kevin Flanigan, spokesman for the Division of Capital Asset Management.

The state intends to "ride out the appeals," Flanigan said. "In the event that it doesn't turn out that the college can be served by the turbine we have other places where we can use it."

Historically the use of wind for energy on Cape Cod and the Islands is nothing new, said state Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Ian Bowles.

"I think wind has been a significant part of the historic landscape of Massachusetts," he said, adding that hundreds of windmills once dotted coastal areas in particular.

And while Gov. Deval Patrick's goal of 2,000 megawatts of the state's energy coming from wind by 2020 is expected to be mostly met with offshore facilities like the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm, towns will have to work through issues such as the clash between historic preservation and renewable-energy sources scattered across the landscape, Bowles said.

The college turbine is not the only wind-energy project to face push back from historic interests in the state. Most notably, a decision on Cape Wind hangs in the balance over objections based on its potential effect on historic properties and sites considered sacred by the Mashpee Wampanoag and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah.)

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he will make a decision on Cape Wind by the end of April.