Kennedy approves of waterfront wind turbine

LYNN – Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy says a 254-foot tall wind turbine will fit in with development concepts taking shape for the city’s waterfront.”It doesn’t take up that much room and the design is sleek, quite aesthetic,” she said Friday, one day after state legislators struck a compromise on proposals to streamline the permitting process for the turbine project.The turbine proposed by the Water and Sewer Commission is far enough along in the approval process to not need the extra push the legislation – if it is signed by Gov. Deval Patrick – would give it. All approvals are in place for the project except for a yet-to-be-scheduled review by the Zoning Board of Appeals.Plans call for the windmill-like tower near the landfill next to the waste water treatment plant complex on the Commercial Street end of the Lynnway.Construction work will take a year and cost about $3 million, according to Water Treatment Plant Operations Director Robert Tina, who said the turbine will be similar in size to the Chelsea turbine visible from Revere.The turbine’s blades will convert waterfront winds averaging 13 miles an hour annually into energy sufficient enough to reduce the commission’s $1.7 million annual electricity bill by one-quarter to one-third and eliminate 2,000 tons of carbon emissions annually.Kennedy called the turbine tower “compatible” with plans shaping up for the waterfront that center around freeing up 100 waterfront acres for development once power line relocation work is finished.The proposed turbine is roughly 100 feet shorter than the Essex Street communications tower, known to most as the Wayne Alarm tower. It would be anchored in place on its waterfront site with 150-foot deep pilings. Tina said the turbine tower will be shorter than the new power line towers when measured from the center of the turbine blades to the tower base.Water and Sewer officials will discuss the turbine project on Thursday with Lynn Business Partnership members.”We are trying to determine what the proposal is. We have no pre-conceived notions,” said Partnership Chairman Gordon R. Hall.Former City Councilor at large Loretta Cuffe O’Donnell first proposed bringing wind power to Lynn seven years ago. The latest legislative efforts to help communities review and approval turbine projects requires communities with “significant wind areas” to form a review board that vets all wind projects. Once approved by the review board, a wind developer can immediately seek a state permit. The proposal would permit courts to overturn the rejection of a wind facility, and permits residents to appeal decisions first to the Energy Facilities Siting Board and then to the Supreme Judicial Court. Critics of the proposal, particularly in Western Massachusetts, have worried that local review boards could become rubber stamps for wind developments and could ram through wind projects that cause environmental damage.The Water and Sewer Commission has obtained state and federal permits to build the turbine received a $600,000 Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust grant to reduce construction costs.