Florida's first Wind Farm -- Will it happen?

Florida Power & Light, the state's largest utility, wants to build a line of nine wind turbines, each more than 400 feet tall, along an Atlantic Ocean beach in St. Lucie County near Ft. Pierce.

It's the first such wind farm ever proposed for the Sunshine State, but there's a catch: Three of the proposed turbines would be built on publicly owned land at Blind Creek, a local conservation area adjacent to FPL's Hutchinson Island nuclear plant.

The other six wind turbines would be built on existing FPL property on Hutchinson Island near their nuke.

FPL needs a green light from county officials for a change in zoning and a variance on a 35-foot height limit for buildings, as well as from the state, which owns the land. But their proposal, to build at Blind Creek, has drawn the ire of a number of environmental groups even though the turbines would take up only 3 or 4 acres of dunes in the 409-acre park,

Among the opposition is The Surfrider Foundation, a local coalition of surfers, divers and anglers. In the past, Surfrider volunteers have spent countless hours restoring native vegetation at the county park. Blind Creek also provides nesting areas for sea turtles, forage for wood storks and a bonanza for archaeologists, because it holds a burial ground of prehistoric Indians.

In a report to the state lands committee, the state Department of Environmental Protection said the utility's proposal appeared to be "in the public interest."

"The location fulfills all sitting criteria for wind energy generation on the Florida coast, avoids coastal wetland impacts, and contributes to the state of Florida's goal ... of reducing greenhouse gas emissions," the report said. No other places along the coast were suitable, it said.

However, there are other state environmental groups who also oppose the project.

Audubon of Florida, the Florida Wildlife Federation and 1,000 Friends of Florida - have sent state officials a letter questioning whether the windmills will kill migrating birds and objecting to the use of conservation land for industrial use.

And to further complicate matters -

…… a memo from the St. Lucie County attorney says turning the property over to FPL would be illegal. The reason: The land was purchased in part by using $3.6-million in bonds approved by St. Lucie's voters to buy and protect "environmentally significant lands and wildlife habitat." The ballot language included no provision for turning the land over to a utility.

Problems and solutions

In the case of this wind turbine proposal, the problem seems to be that FPL doesn't have enough room on its own property on Hutchinson Island to build the amount of wind turbines it has proposed.

So lets take a moment to analyze this situation.

Why nine turbines instead of six?

· Perhaps 9 turbines is the magic number needed to generate a specified amount of renewable power

· Or, maybe it takes 9 turbines to generate the required ROI (Return On Investment) for FPL -- after all, they are a "For Profit" business.

Unfortunately, I, like the rest of you am left guessing the reason(s) why FPL needs to build 9 Wind Turbines at their East Coast location. Repeated calls by BoomerBikerOnline to FPL this week have failed to produce anyone in that company willing to answer this or any other pertinent questions about their wind Turbine project.

But, from my perspective, these problems are not insurmountable.

Lets consider several possible reasons why FPL would need the additional conservation land.

· Perhaps all 9-wind turbines are too big to fit on FPL's property? After all, each wind turbine generates electricity using 3 massive rotating blades - each more than 130 feet in length and mounted atop a pole that stands more than 400 feet high.

· But alas, I'm all ears if you can come up with another explanation.

So, if "9" is the magic number of wind turbines that it will take to make this deal fly and if there really isn't enough FPL land to accommodate that many turbines,……..then one final question remains:

Is there anything that can be done to resolve this problem and move FPL's project forward? I say there is! And I'd like to propose my solution.

Packwind

And at this time, I feel it's appropriate for me to remind you that I have already written about Packwind and their renewable energy products. That was back in Tip of the Week # 16. Remember?

Hint: Packwind is the company that installed a wind turbine on the Big Dog Garage -- Jay Leno's digs in Burbank.

Anyway, it seems to me that if you're considering the installation of a wind farm in an area with limited space -- apparently like FPL's property on Hutchinson Island, then the only variable in this equation is the design of the wind turbines themselves.

I'd like to suggest to FPL Vice President Eric Silagy that he take a hard look at Pacwind and their space saving wind turbine designs. Pacwind's turbines are bird friendly, fully scaleable and their wind turbine designs seems to mitigate common problems inherent in other turbine designs like footprint and noise. And as an added bonus, the folks at Pacwind have past experience working with municipalities and commercial utilities.

My view:

In order to make it possible for Renewable Energy to power this countries future there has to be a fundamental change in the way we Americans approach the development and implication of these developing technologies.

In this instance, instead of spending time arguing about FPL's plan and all the obstacles preventing it's implementation, we would all be wiser if we invested our time and efforts to do whatever it takes to clear the way to make projects, like this - Florida's first wind farm - a reality.

To me, all this bickering over what amounts to an area of less than 5 acres in the Blind Creek Preserve seems completely ridicules when you step back and consider the big picture.

As stewards of this planet we humans need to do all we can -- and the sooner, the better - to develop renewable energy and reverse global warming. If we allow ourselves to become caught up endless debate over issues like this -- then, chances are fairly good that sometime in the not-so-distant future, these conservation groups will suddenly discover that they have no more wildlife to protect -- Global Warming will have contributed to its extinction - and possibly "ours" as well.

My Tip:

Get actively involved in resolving our worlds growing energy crisis. As concerned citizens of this great Democracy, we should take positive action and work tirelessly to develop promote and insure the use of renewable energy solutions to our countries' insatiable energy demands.

To learn more about Pacwind's innovative Vertical Axis Wind Turbines, please go to: http://www.pacwind.net/

For more information about FPL's Clean Energy Programs, please go to: http://www.fplenergy.com/

Catch you all next week.