APEX CLEAN ENERGIES GALLOO ISLAND WIND SOCIOECONOMIC IMPACTS
The following is an excerpt from exhibit 27, of Apex Clean Energies recently submitted application to the Public Service Commission for a Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Need Pursuant to Article 10 to Construct a Wind Energy Project on Galloo Island, NY
Exhibit 27 Socioeconomic (p.4)
Exhibit 27 Socioeconomic (p.4)
With respect to the Galloo Island Facility, the Applicant reviewed the default project cost values subtotaled by each of the following categories in the JEDI model to determine whether they were on par with the real costs as experienced by the Applicant: Equipment during Construction, Balance of Plant Construction, Labor during Operation & Maintenance, Materials and Services during Operation & Maintenance, Financial Parameters, Tax Parameters, Land Lease Parameters and Payroll Parameters.
Adjustments were made to specific default values and included replacing the default local tax value ($0) with the known estimated annual payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) value ($816,750); increasing the default value of Land Easements during Construction ($0) to the known $6.3 million cost required for purchasing the Galloo Island parcel containing the turbines ($3 million) and a one-time lease of an underwater parcel for constructing the underwater high-voltage transmission line ($3.3 million); decreasing the default value of Annual Lease during Operating Years ($326,700) to the known value ($0); decreasing the default Total Cost of Equipment during Construction value from $136.8 million to a more reasonable value of $108.9 million (due to a lower cost for turbine components); and increasing the default Balance of Plant Total value from $47.4 million to a more reasonable value of $137.0 million (reflecting the higher cost of island development). The remaining cost values were uncertain at the time of analysis (July 2017), therefore the remaining default values were reviewed and determined to be reasonable estimates based on previous experience in wind energy development by the Applicant.
Full Exhibit
Letter ~ Galloo Island Wind LLC ~ Disregard_Hounsfield_Findings
December 05/2016 Letter to New York State Public Service Commission urging them to require APEX to to undertake a comprehensive series of studies in 2017 to build on the previous work, not to rely almost totally on the dated, eight-year old Hounsfield studies.
Galloo Application Incomplete
RE: GALLOO ISLAND WIND, LLC. Case No. 15-F-0327
Date: October 19, 2017
Document title: Galloo Application Incomplete
Submitted by:
Clifford P. Schneider, pro se
October 19, 2017
Mr. John B. Rhodes, Chair
NY Department of Public Service
Three Empire State Plaza
Albany, New York 12223-1350
RE: GALLOO ISLAND WIND, LLC. 15-F-0327
Dear Chairman Rhodes:
I am writing to you because as chair to the Siting Board you have the statutory responsibility to determine if the Application provided by Apex Clean Energy for their Galloo Island Wind Facility is complete. I am therefore requesting that you carefully consider Apex Clean Energy’s application, because there are serious survey deficiencies that require further investigation by the Applicant to ensure that the record is properly informed.
Apex’s application should be considered incomplete until those deficiencies can be properly addressed. Although I have outlined a number of concerns in previous filings to DPS, the most important study deficiency relates to quantifying avian migration activity over Galloo Island each spring and fall. This issue, if you recall, was also specified in the Power NY Act of 2011. Additionally, at the Pre-Application Conference for the Galloo project held on July 28, 2016 the presiding examiner remarked the avian report should be updated from eight to ten years ago.
First, Galloo Island and its neighbor Little Galloo Island, are special and unique habitats that are home to important, valuable avian and bat resources. There are a whole series of state and associated records and policies that testify to their importance, e.g., New York Open Space Management Plan, Lake Ontario Islands Wildlife Management Plan, NYSDEC Lake Ontario Bird Conservation Area, FEIS for NY Clean Energy Standard and Audubon Important Bird Area.
In spite of the special status associated with Galloo and Little Galloo Islands, Apex plans to develop a large-scale, industrial wind project. With that development, however, comes a responsibility incumbent on all of us, not just the Siting Board, that we evaluate the risks of their project properly. Due diligence, in the case of
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1 Transcript July 28, 2016 Pre-Application Conference, p.38, line 9.
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assessing Galloo’s special resources, requires a little more to examine risks and impacts, not less.
Apex’s application relies principally on old, now out-of-date avian studies conducted from 2007-2009 for the first wind development attempt on Galloo, the Hounsfield Wind Farm. The supplemental studies undertaken in 2015 provide no additional insight into the Galloo project’s risk to migratory birds and bats – none! For this reason alone Apex’s application at this time should be deemed incomplete.
Apex’s failure to properly assess impacts to migrating birds and bats relates to two specific issues, failure to consider that Galloo’s proposed turbine models are 176 ft taller than those that were the basis for the 2008-2009 studies. Secondly, the decade old, 2008 radar study should have included two full migratory seasons of baseline assessment, and it should also have included the use of recent improvements in radar technology.
Apex’s single 2008 radar study focused the potential impacts on a turbine rotor zone with a maximum height of 410 ft. The number of birds and bats that flew through this zone in spring 2008 was greater than 30 other radar studies Apex referenced for comparison – none were greater. With Apex’s 586 feet tall wind turbines, larger rotors and higher blade tip speeds, exposure of these high densities of avian migrants to potential turbine collision mortality will be far greater with Apex’s current proposal.
In addition, increased turbine height negates much of the assessed impacts of bat activity within the rotor zone reported in Apex’s 2008 Migrating Bat Study. In 2008, Apex placed microphones at various heights on meteorological towers in an effort to describe bat activity within the rotor zone. That may have been useful with 410 ft turbines, but with the 586 ft turbines now proposed by Apex those results would only be useful in describing bat activity BELOW the rotor zone. Consequently, using old, outdated surveys will provide no insight into the risks to bats from Apex’s proposed wind project and do not properly inform the record.
With respect to the 2008 radar study, Apex tried to rehash their 2008 data in its application to reflect this increase in rotor height, but
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2 See Section 5.0 Expanded Pre-Construction Surveys in Guidelines for Conducting Bird and Bat at Commercial Wind Energy Projects, NYSDEC , Div. Fish, Wildlife & Marine Resources, August 2009, 31pp.
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by their own admission they concluded it was invalid: “Due to the challenges of comparing data using different radar technologies, the statistics resulting from the reanalysis are not considered valid measures of avian or bat activity and therefore should not be used as indices of risk.”. Furthermore, the USFWS in reviewing Apex’s 2008 radar study also concluded, “Given these and other factors, the Service believes the study does not adequately characterize wildlife movement and risk at this site.” A number of other conclusions from experts add to the concern that Apex’s radar study must be redone:
Galloo Island Wind Farm - How Important to NY's Energy Future?
Galloo Island Wind Farm - How Important to NY's Energy Future?
When the 100 MW Galloo Island Wind Farm gets plugged-in every electron it produces will be transmitted downstate. Future demand for electricity in New York is about meeting downstate needs, not upstate.
Any wind farm in New York is lucky if they average one-third of rated capacity. For the Galloo project it would mean producing 289,000 MWh each year.
How will this production help meet New York's downstate electric need? Better yet, what would downstate households have to do to reduce demand so that we would not have to despoil Galloo Island with 30, 500+ ft high wind turbines?
If each downstate household (4.8 million) replaced a single 60 watt incandescent light bulb with a 10 watt compact fluorescent for three hours of daily use, it would save more electricity than that produced by the proposed Galloo Island project.
Why ruin a unique Lake Ontario island habitat if it could be saved by having downstate households replace a single light bulb.
GALLOO ISLAND TURBINES CLEARED by FAA
DETERMINATION OF NO HAZARD TO AIR NAVIGATION
Today 9/05/2017 the FAA Issued a determination of no hazard to Apex Clean Energy for their Galloo Island Industrial wind project.
The FAA conducted an aeronautical study to determine the effect the proposed Galloo Island wind turbines would have on the safe and efficient use of navigable airspace by aircraft and on the operation of air navigation facilities.
Each turbine included in the proposed the Galloo Island Industrial Wind Project (T1 throughT30) received the same letter of determination.
Link here to FAA Website to view determined cases
Galloo FAA Aproval Letter by pandorasboxofrocks on Scribd
The FAA conducted an aeronautical study to determine the effect the proposed Galloo Island wind turbines would have on the safe and efficient use of navigable airspace by aircraft and on the operation of air navigation facilities.
Today the FAA issued a determination of no hazard for the proposed Galloo Island wind project.
This determination becomes final on October 15, 2017 unless a petition requesting additional review is filed on or before October 05,2017 information concerning filing a petition for review is included in the FAA Obstruction determination letter below.Each turbine included in the proposed the Galloo Island Industrial Wind Project (T1 throughT30) received the same letter of determination.
Link here to FAA Website to view determined cases
Galloo FAA Aproval Letter by pandorasboxofrocks on Scribd
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