TRAVERSE CITY -- The Bay Area Transportation Authority has decided against continuing with a proposed wind turbine project in Long Lake Township.
In 2005, BATA was awarded a Michigan Department of Transportation energy grant of $600,000 to be used to build a wind turbine. Once constructed, the turbine was expected to generate enough power to cover BATA’s annual electric costs as well as turbine maintenance.
However, Executive Director Tom Menzel said concerns about startup costs, being able to stay within budget and the age of the equipment contributed to BATA’s decision.
“I take my fiduciary role of making sure we use taxpayers’ money wisely very seriously,” Menzel said. “It was becoming clear that there were still too many unknowns in this project, and we have so many other priorities right now that we want to focus our staff energy and time on those.”
Menzel said a great disparity in bids raised some concerns about what the actual cost of the project would be.
“The grant was issued in 2005 and the expenses determined to bring in a project of this nature are no longer relevant in today’s economy,” he said.
In addition, the project called for a reconditioned 1992 wind turbine and the supplier could not guarantee a dependable parts inventory.
“If problems arose, the unit could be down for long periods of time while our fixed costs for care and maintenance would be ongoing,” Menzel said. “This made the project a higher risk long term.”
BATA had also hoped to sell the turbine to Traverse City Light and Power after five years, but Menzel said the utility wasn’t interested because of the age of the unit. BATA is working with the John Drury, project manager with the Michigan Department of Transportation, to investigate the possibilities of using the grant for another purpose.
“We are exploring, with John’s help, the possibility of using the grant toward the purchase of buses, which we badly need due to the age of our existing fleet and the lack of a timely replacement strategy in the past,” Menzel said. “We currently have only 76 percent of our current fleet available for use.”
While Menzel noted that the turbine had exciting potential, he and the BATA board felt not pursuing it was the right thing to do at this time.
"This was a decision based on sound business logic," he said. "I don’t believe we could have done it within the budget and there were too many loose ends.
“The lack of assurance that we could get a consistent long-term return on our invested capital was in doubt and that was a basis for our decision not to proceed on the project.”
Menzel credited Long Lake Township officials and Traverse City Light and Power staff with demonstrating a “high level of professionalism” in exploring the viability of implementing the Wind Turbine Grant.
