Though town won't be building windmills, it would become first on LI to acquire the green power source
By Mitchell Freedman
Staff Writer
July 1, 2004
Southold's elected officials have decided to make their town the first on Long Island to use electricity produced by wind power.
"Our attorney is starting to work on a draft contract now," said Supervisor Joshua Horton. "I'm a staunch believer in it ... Our town board is very supportive of the concept."
Under the plan, there will be no new power-generating windmills built in Southold. Instead, the town plans to sign a contract with Wayne, Pa.-based Community Energy Inc., which buys electricity produced on wind farms, and makes it available to customers across the Northeast.
Community Energy is one of the providers in the Long Island Power Authority's energy choice program, which allows individuals to purchase electricity generated from renewable resources, at a slightly higher cost.
Horton says Southold spends about $100,000 a year on electricity, for everything from street lights to copy machines, and could pay up to 10 percent more for the wind-produced power.
But, he added, the town is also asking LIPA to review its energy use and expects to make significant reductions in its power use.
Horton expects the new savings to just about balance out the extra cost of electricity. "It should be a wash," he said.
Because of the way energy is produced and moved around the nation's power grid, there will not be dedicated windmills generating power just for Southold Town. Instead, Community Energy will ship enough wind-powered energy to LIPA over the course of a year to match the town's total electric use.
Community Energy already sells wind-produced electricity to several municipalities in New York State, including Woodstock, Red Hook and Ardsley.
Gwynn Schroeder, Southold coordinator for the North Fork Environmental Council, said the town was setting an example for others by going to non-polluting energy. "If they can pull it off, we'll [all] just have to start thinking about things like this. It will raise awareness," she said. And, Schroeder added, it has already worked for one person - herself. "I was unaware of it [wind-powered electricity]. I'm going to have to check the box in my next LIPA bill."
Richard Amper, executive director of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society, also called Southold's action "a good first step" and praised the town for the decision. But, he added, it would have been better if Southold had built wind farms of its own. Amper noted that Southold's Zoning Board of Appeals had recently turned down a request by a local vineyard to build a wind-generating turbine.
"It definitely shows an environmental appreciation," Amper said. "If we don't start with these intermediate steps, there is the danger we will never adopt true alternate energy choices. It's encouraging a way of thinking that is somewhat removed from, say, the wind generation project adopted earlier this month by LIPA."
LIPA last month approved a project to build a wind farm of 39 windmills 3 to 5 miles southwest of Robert Moses State Park which would generate 100 megawatts of power.
LIPA chairman Richard M. Kessel expressed hope Southold's decision would be an example to other municipalities, school districts and local businesses. He added that it should help kick-start LIPA's Green Choice program, which is targeted to sign up 30,000 customers within five years. "It will certainly open up the eyes of other potential customers," he said.
But Kessel, too, expressed disappointment that Southold's Zoning Board of Appeals - an appointed agency which is independent of the town board - denied the request to build a windmill on a local vineyard.
"One of the reasons we're doing it [building windmills] offshore, frankly, is that we're having trouble getting windmills built on land," Kessel said. We could not get one windmill on a winery out there."
And, Kessel said, that puzzles him. "I think a windmill is a sight of beauty," he said.
