Grants feeding growth of R.I. wind turbines

HIGH ENERGY: Hodges Badge Co. President Richard Hodges recently saw his company erect the town's third wind turbine. / PBN PHOTO/CHRIS SHORES
HIGH ENERGY: Hodges Badge Co. President Richard Hodges recently saw his company erect the town's third wind turbine. / PBN PHOTO/CHRIS SHORES

Wind turbines have sprouted up across the state, in many cases due to federal and state grants providing hundreds of thousands of dollars to cover capital costs upfront, all at no cost to the proposer.
The latest turbine to grace the skyline is at Hodges Badge Co., a privately owned firm in Portsmouth. It’s the country’s largest maker of custom ribbons for awards – among many other items – and it regularly incurs high electrical costs. Currently in its fourth generation of family ownership, the company employs 100 people in Portsmouth and another 50 in Washington, Mo.
Company President Richard Hodges had a vision for a turbine in 2008 and has made it a reality in less than four years.
The turbine is sized to supply all of the company’s power needs. It is similar in height to the two highly visible turbines in Warwick, located at the New England Institute of Technology and the Shalom Apartments. It has an overall height of nearly 150 feet but there are some differences; the Hodges turbine has a shorter blade (49 feet to 69 feet) and a larger generating capacity (250 kilowatt compared to 100 kilowatt) respectively, than those in Warwick. It is also the third turbine in Portsmouth; Portsmouth High School and Portsmouth Abbey are the others.
The Hodges windmill is expected to eliminate 10,000 pounds per year of carbon emissions. But the technology and construction for such projects come with a price, one that has often been paid through programs like the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, perhaps better known as the “stimulus package,” the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Rhode Island Renewable Energy Fund.
With stimulus funds dwindling, a major source of economic viability for such projects is disappearing.
“The turbine project received [$391,000 in combined] grant funding from the Rhode Island Renewable Energy Fund and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,” said Jessica Willis, associate manager for business development at Hodges Badge. The company covered the remainder of the $900,000 cost, about $509,000.
“Our electrical costs are about $100,000 per year,” Willis said, acknowledging that the payback could be relatively quick. “As far as we know we are the first Rhode Island manufacturer to be completely powered by renewable energy.” At the Shalom House in Warwick, their 100-kilowattt wind turbine was made possible by a $1.4 million grant from HUD.
The turbine at NEIC received grant funding from both the Rhode Island Renewable Energy Fund and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Any money the state can get its hands on is a bonus. Last August, Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee outlined a strategy to use $6.5 million in federal funding. About $2.5 million is designated to augment the renewable energy fund to meet increased demand and accelerate renewable energy projects through feasibility studies and project financing.
The latest turbine-project site sits in Providence, where the Narragansett Bay Commission is in the midst of installing three turbines at their wastewater-treatment facility.
The project was financed through low-interest loans from the R.I. Clean Water Finance Agency and grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The sewage-treatment plant spends $2.5 million a year in electricity. The three 1.5-megawatt turbines are expected to save $1 million each year. The mini-wind farm is expected to be up and running by late summer. The final price tag was $12.2 million, with a payback of 12-14 years.
For NBC it’s the culmination of a process that started in 2005 and included grant applications, study, engineering and several public hearings. “It’s been a long time coming. Applying for funding was a big piece in getting it together,” said Jamie Samons, associate manager for business development.
But these projects are dwarfed by a proposal being explored by the East Bay Energy Consortium, a collection of nine municipalities, including Barrington, Bristol, East Providence, Little Compton, Middletown, Newport, Portsmouth, Tiverton and Warren. It has received a $335,000 grant from the EDC but will need significantly more funding support to become a reality.
At the legislative level, a bill giving the consortium nonprofit corporation status failed to pass this year.
The plan is to erect 10, 80-foot turbines for a 25 MW system. Initial estimates put the project at $50-$70 million, and would produce a net return of about $23-$40 million over the life of the project, according to EBEC figures. Resulting power would be distributed at about 3.5 MW per town. •

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