Vermont utilities offer tour of wind farm
Two Vermont utilities are offering a free daylong trip Saturday to a New Hampshire windpower installation where 12 tall turbines generate electricity atop Lempster Mountain.
It’s a chance for residents of Lowell, Vt., and surrounding towns to judge for themselves a wind development’s impacts, the utilities say.
Green Mountain Power Corp. and Vermont Electric Cooperative are proposing a 16- to 24-turbine project on a ridgeline in Lowell. They’ve pledged not to proceed if Lowell residents vote against the project at town meeting in March.
“People in the Northeast Kingdom who would have to look at the turbines — we want them to be able to put them in perspective, to see what the scale is on mountaintops, to see them from different distances,” said Robert Dostis, a Green Mountain Power spokesman.
He said the day-trippers will have a chance to view the New Hampshire towers and listen to their sound, though they won’t get closer than about 4,000 feet. During lunch at a general store, participants can talk to residents of Lempster, N.H., about their experience of the turbines, he said.
The 24-megawatt project on Lempster Mountain — about 20 miles east of Springfield, Vt. — is owned by Iberdrola Renewables, a Spanish company.
Lowell residents have greeted the wind tour in different ways.
Gaye Myers, a housewife who says she hasn’t made up her mind how to vote, signed up for the trip.
“There’s been so much controversy in town, I’d like to see for myself, the size, the lights on top, hear the noise,” she said. “I understand how someone would feel if they had these things in their backyard, but I also like the idea of alternative energy.”
Don Nelson, who says the GMP project would give him “24 towers in my backyard,” decided to stay home. His mind is made up. He is “totally opposed to large-scale wind in Vermont.”
“I just cannot see why I would want to go see a car accident,” he said of the trip.
By Candace Page
Free Press Staff Writer
Burlington Free Press
4 December 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
Some possibly related stories:
The copyright of this article is owned by the author or publisher indicated. Its availability here constitutes a "fair use" as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law as well as in similar "fair dealing" exceptions of the copyright laws of other nations, as part of National Wind Watch's effort to advance understanding of the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development. For more information, click here.
