by Krystal Paco

Guam - NAVFAC Marianas visited the Mayors Council of Guam Wednesday morning to inform village leaders on an upcoming project that will help the island in its pursuit of going green. There's more incentive to being environmentally conscious than just saving the planet.

Environmental planner for the Joint Region Marianas Mark Cruz came before the Mayor's Council of Guam Wednesday morning to speak on the Department of Defense's plan to use $20 million in ARRA funding to potentially bring wind turbines to Guam to cut the costs of the DoD's power bill.

According to studies by the feds, Guam has ideal winds to sustain such a project, which converts wind energy into kinetic energy and into electricity. "The plan is to erect a few wind turbines on Guam to start harnessing the wind energy to save some energy expenditures for the Navy," he said.

Cruz estimates that the green technologies will save the DoD $1.2 million a year in energy costs. According to Cruz, DoD's investment in such green technologies will benefit the entire island. "The benefits the public will have is the technology will be on Guam," he noted. "The Navy's going to - hopefully - put some up. Guam Power Authority can learn from our project and share data and work with them because they also have plans to put wind turbines on the island."

Wind turbines can produce up to four megawatts in electricity, unlike solar power which is mainly used to offset energy consumption. Village leaders voiced their concerns on the project such as the impact it will have to the island's viewscapes. According to Cruz, the largest wind turbine will be taller than one of the island's tallest towers - the Pacific Islands Club Guam Oceania B Tower with 32 floors.

He continued, "The concerns the public might have has to do with folks might be curious as to how loud these are and one common concern folks have when we talk about this project is typhoon survivability, if there's another Typhoon Pongsona. What does that mean to the turbine and just how large they are what are their impact to the viewscapes?"

"At this point we're going to be engaging the public with this project; part of this year and early part of next year. If everything goes well with the public we're hoping to award a contract a year from now."