Before Repairs, Final Turbine Meeting Planned for Late Sept.

One last meeting before repair work begins on the broken wind turbine at Portsmouth High School is planned for later this month, but Town Council President James Seveney said in an e-mail message that the date has not yet been set and it wouldn’t be earlier than Sept. 22, at the earliest.

At its last Town Council meeting, Town Administrator John Klimm said that it’s almost time for a final special meeting for one last presentation before the council ultimately choose between the options.

At the same time, Klimm said that the council should by then have signed agreements from vendors who responded to the town’s request for proposals to make the necessary repairs, which are estimated to cost about $850,000.

EcoRI.com reported that the town had recieved three responses to the RFP, including one that listed a price of $500,000 to swap a faulty gearbox plus $38,000 annually to operate the turbine.

The second option consisted of replacing the entire upper part of the turbine, EcoRI.com reported.

A third handwritten bid was on hold after the town asked for additional information.

Klimm, at the most-recent Town Council meeting, said the final financial terms will be on paper for the council to make a well-guided decision.

The wind turbine was operational and ran successfully from 2009 until early 2012. In 2012 the wind turbines’ gearbox suffered a significant, premature failure.

Since then, it has become an eyesore for the town that generated contentious debate until the Town Council finally took action in June and voted 4-2 to go ahead with a repair plan after estimates for removing the turbine showed it would cost more than a fix.

Problems were compounded by the original manufacturer AAER Wind Energy going out of business and filing for bankruptcy in 2010, leaving the town without any real support.

The town has been given several financial boosts to get the repair project off the ground. In early June, the attorney general announced a $250,000 grant to offset repair costs using money collected from a Clean Air Act lawsuit.

And in July, the RI Commerce Corporation approved a plan to modify the terms of a $370,000 loan the town took out to help build the turbine. Under the new terms, the town will hold its annual principal and interest payments for nine years, diverting the money into a repair escrow account.

The loan is now set to be paid off by Aug. 1, 2024 — about a year later than under the previous terms.