Commerce Corp. Votes to Modify Portsmouth Turbine Loan

The Rhode Island Commerce Corporation on Monday voted to modify the terms of the town of Portsmouth’s $370,000 loan that helped build the idle wind turbine near the high school.

In a unanimous vote, the board of directors for CommerceRI agreed to modify the loan, sparing the town interests and payments due for the first nine years.

With the modification, the town will be freed up to set aside money for repairs into an escrow account.

The loan is still due to be paid off in about 10 years, by Aug. 1 of 2024. Under the original terms, the loan was to be paid off by July of 2023.

The move by CommerceRI is the latest step in the long saga to get the turbine working once again.

In June, Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin announced he directed $250,000 in settlement money from a Clean Air Act lawsuit to help the town make repairs to the turbine.

The wind turbine was operational and ran successfully from 2009 until early 2012. In 2012 the wind turbines’ gearbox suffered a significant, premature failure. The gearbox must be replaced in order to return the turbine to service.

Two days after Kilmartin’s announcement, the Portsmouth Town Council voted 4-2 to begin the process of fixing the turbine. The cost of repairs is estimated to be about $850,000 while the cost of removing it entirely, which some residents argued for, was estimated to be $2 million.