Ë®¹ûÅÉAV

The Agricola Wind Project would consist of up to two dozen 600-foot turbines on a 50-acre site between the towns of Scipio and Venice, generating 99 megawatts of electricity local residents can use.

But at an Aug. 6 public comment hearing and in more than 200 written comments, residents have said the turbines would be unsightly, noisy and unsafe, among other concerns.  

Ë®¹ûÅÉAV reached out to Scott Biggar, director of development for project developer Liberty Renewables, to address their concerns at length:

Q. What are some of the biggest obstacles that you've come across when stressing the importance of renewable energy?

A. I think that for many people, electricity and where it comes from is often kind of an afterthought. It's not always the most top-of-mind thing. The ways we produce electricity are subject to factors, like fuel price fluctuations, which can impact power prices and utility bills for consumers. One of the things that is often overlooked for a wind energy project is that the fuel for a wind energy project has no cost — it's the wind. This is how this operates in New York state, with (the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority). Electricity from wind projects can be procured with long-term, up to sometimes 20 years, fixed-rate contracts that are predictable for utilities and rate payers. It's this part of it that often gets overlooked. Outside of environmental benefits from renewable energy, there's also long-term stability from producing electricity from wind and even increasing it in your own state.

Q. Will all the turbines be facing the same direction?

A. The turbines have an automated system that will always face toward the direction of the wind. When the wind shifts direction, the turbine’s cell, which is the generator box at the top of the tower, actually rotates to face the incoming wind.

Q. At what distance can the turbines be seen?

A. Visibility of a wind project can be variable depending on some things, like weather, topography and even seasons. In New York state, for our permit application for the Agricola project, regulations require a complete, detailed visual analysis 5 miles away from the project.

Q. How will the turbines affect property values and taxes?

A. In New York state, wind projects do not contribute to property tax increases. A big part of that is because the wind projects are taxed via a separate state taxation process, not by the local assessor. Through that tax process, their revenues are still determined by the state and fed back into the county for things like fire districts. There have been wind projects in New York state for over 20 years. Typically, what you find, the stable revenue coming in is close to about $400,000 per year. This is over multiple decades. Some towns and residents of towns have found that it helps with property tax relief where they maybe don't have to raise people's property taxes as much because they have this additional revenue. I will never speak for a town supervisor and say that that's what they're going to do, but that's just what we've seen in the data.

Q. How will fires be addressed since fire trucks can't get 600 feet high in the air?

A. While they're extremely rare, turbine fires can occur. The first line of defense is the fire detection system and suppression system in the turbine’s cell. Our operators are notified that a fire has started, and this starts a chain reaction with emergency responders. If the suppression system fails to extinguish the fire, emergency responders set up a safety perimeter around the turbine, making sure that no one is approaching the turbine and that safety protocols are being followed until the fire has burned out. First responders are trained on how to respond to the unlikely event of a turbine fire. They're trained before construction and are retrained every year. 

Q. How long will the turbines actually run during the day? 

A. The short answer: They can run day or night. It's entirely dictated by wind speeds rather than the time of day. It doesn't take much wind — 6 miles an hour, calculated by the generator 400 feet up — to start the rotor and start generating electricity. So, for a high percentage of the year, whether it's day or night, the turbines are operating.

Q. What is the threat of noise pollution?

A. Turbine sound and the decibel levels can differ between different models from different manufacturers. What's easier to go off of is — what are the regulations? New York state limits the sound to 45 decibels when measured from the outside of the home. It's the equivalent of a refrigerator hum, which, depending on fridges, is around 50 decibels. Another comparison would be that, in rural areas, it's kind of a nighttime ambient sound. That's how we have to design the project … so that none of them are exceeding that amount.

Q. Is there any material coming off the blades or motors that could cause pollution?

A. The blades are designed to be extremely strong and operate in any type of harsh weather conditions for 20 to 30 years. If weathering does occur, it affects things like paint and coating, providing protection for the composite materials. These coatings are nontoxic. The blade tip is most exposed to any kind of weather conditions. The blade tips are reinforced to minimize potential erosion.

Q. What about flickering? Would that pose any impact on human health at all?

A. It's a similar process when working backwards from state regulations in terms of how much shadow flicker can be experienced by any one house. Shadow flicker is the intermittent change in sunlight.  It only happens when the sun is out and is also affected by time of day, cloud cover and whether you're at the bottom of a hill. Per year, New York state limits the number of hours of shadow flicker a house can experience to 30 hours. You can’t exceed that mark for any one residence.

Q. There have been concerns about redactions in studies related to the project, particularly bird studies. The Citizen was told it is to protect species from traffic. Can you elaborate on that?

A. (The state Office of Renewable Energy Siting and Electric Transmission) controls those redactions. This is one of those misconceptions. People think that we were redacting species data from the bird studies, but it's actually ORES that requires it. They'll often require redactions of information, whether it's sensitive environmental data, a historical site or something along those lines. Wind projects have been around in the United States for decades, and in New York as well. If you're thinking about wind energy, it has one of the lowest impacts on wildlife and avian habitats compared to other forms of generating electricity. We're all environmentalists to some extent. A lot of our staff are former wildlife biologists. We take this very seriously. To date, there have been no significant population impacts to avian species documented for any one avian species or habitat. The Audubon Society fully supports wind energy projects, specifically responsibly cited wind energy. There are years and years of environmental impact studies and avian analysis, which our projects have to go through. The data is out there. It's engaging with the Department of Environmental Conservation and with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service very early on in the project’s siting. They actually have the avian studies that we did over the past five years. They tell us basically what's in the area and this information informs the siting process. You can't just put them, turbines, anywhere. (ORES has not responded to a request by Ë®¹ûÅÉAV for the redacted information.)

Q. Are there any other concerns that Liberty Renewables has heard that you feel should be cleared up?

A. The land use is a bit of a misconception. There are some people who say that wind energy is not compatible with agriculture, but it absolutely is. The USDA published a study last year looking at wind projects throughout the country. I think it's almost 70,000 wind turbines that are installed in the United States. Ninety percent of them are built on agricultural land, and then less than 1% of those lands have stopped farming after the turbines were installed. It's an interesting, challenging concern. From our perspective, the turbines don't take up a lot of room on the land — approximately 30 acres total. The farmers can plant and farm right up to them. They are entering a long-term lease with us; we're renting the land. It's a potential for farms, if they're hosting turbines, to increase their annual revenue per acre when combined with their existing operations.  We fully expect all the farms we're working with to continue operating as farms well after the turbines have been installed.