State nixes Nahant turbine plan

NAHANT – The state has pulled the plug on a plan to install wind turbines on light poles along the Nahant Causeway.This week the state Department of Conservation and Recreation canceled a procurement process for the Causeway wind turbine project and rejected any responses it had received. The project would have located wind turbines along the Causeway to power street lights and the Nahant Beach Reservation.According to a press release issued by project manager Stephen D. Brown, the turbines place unnecessary risks on the project, which were not apparent at the time the request for responses was issued.Brown said it is the position of the DCR that the close proximity of a renewable energy system to the Nahant Causeway traffic corridor posed potential environmental, avian, aesthetic and public safety concerns.Larry Bradley, chairman of the Nahant Alternative Energy Committee, who represented the town on the turbine evaluation team, said, “I am disappointed. There are obviously pros and cons on this issue – economic, time delays and so forth – but we will continue to look at ways to use alternative energy in town.”Selectman Mike Manning, who was a member of the committee at the time the project was proposed, said the town would continue to look at ways to reduce its carbon footprint.”We need to reduce reliance on power from coal power plants and other forms of traditional energy,” he said. “We have said all along we think there are a number of alternative energy technologies that make a lot of sense. In this case the town is not the decision maker, the state is.”The DCR started looking into the possibility of installing wind turbines as part of the Causeway rehabilitation plan in the fall of 2008, when selectmen, at the request of the Nahant Alternative Energy Committee, sent a letter to the state urging it to install wind turbines on light poles along Nahant Causeway as part of the rehabilitation project.