Shopping for wind turbines and bridges commences in Silver Bay

The City of Silver Bay met Monday night and made quick work of its agenda. In less than fifteen minutes the council members had approved the minutes of the last meeting, paid the bills, made all necessary decisions and were back in their cars headed home. All councilors, Mayor Joanne Johnson, City Administrator Lana Fralich and City Attorney Pete Morris were present for the meeting.

City employees in Silver Bay, Beaver Bay and those who work at the Silver Bay Veterans Home will be receiving A Workplace Accident and Injury Reduction training later this month. The AWAIR training, developed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration became mandatory for many businesses and entities in 1991.

The council authorized City Administrator Lana Fralich to seek quotes from manufacturers for the city's wind turbine. The original budget for the plan is between $130-140,000, but grants have been sought through Minnesota Power's Conservation Improvement Program Funding for community wind power projects. The CIP funding will provide a maximum of $20,000 for an approved wind energy project. Additionally, grant funding has been sought from the Lloyd K. Johnson Foundation, an organization that supports economic development, education, arts and culture, environmental, and social welfare programs in North Shore communities.

Last spring the floods destroyed the bridge spanning the Beaver River at the Silver Bay Golf Course. A new bridge will replace the old one and Monday night the council gave permission to start the process of seeking quotes for the manufacture of the 70-foot long, 12 foot wide bridge. The total cost of the bridge, installation, engineering and geotechnical work is unknown to date, however, according to Fralich, the cost of the project is expected to come in below the insurance cap of $150,000.

A wind farm developer is making one more effort to persuade state regulators that the turbines it wants to build will meet Wisconsin's noise standards.

In a filing with the state Public Service Commission, Emerging Energies said it was providing new information demonstrating it could comply with a 45-decibel noise standard at night for nearby homes.

But the PSC left the door open for taking a fresh look at the case, saying in its denial that it was under a court-imposed deadline to make a final decision on the matter. The PSC ruling invited the developer to do what it's doing now - to come back with more information showing it can comply with the state's noise limit for wind turbines.

Using nighttime curtailment of wind turbines for affected homeowners can be done to comply with the night noise limit, said Tim Osterberg, one of the principals involved with developer.

Emerging Energies' new analysis concluded that, depending on the turbine used, the overall electricity production from the project would be reduced by 1.6% or 4.5%, but that the restriction "will not negatively impact the project to a degree that makes the project uneconomic," Osterberg said in a filing.

In its decision, the PSC said it was concerned about the use of curtailment as a tool to meet the noise standard. The commission said that, while it recognized that curtailment was allowed by the state's wind turbine siting rules, it concluded that "it is prudent to ensure compliance with applicable audible noise limits using conservative computer modeling before construction."

In other words, developers should design a wind farm so it can comply with the noise standard without the use of curtailment, the commission decided.