Wind Power News: Vermont
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They are the products of the organizations or individuals noted.
Weighing wind energy
The Green Mountain National Forest released the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Deerfield Wind Project in September and we will accept public comment until Friday. The DEIS helps us make a final decision on approval or disapproval of the project by analyzing the effects of an expansion of wind energy development onto National Forest lands, next to the existing wind turbines in Searsburg.
Energy development such as oil and gas exploration and extraction, pipelines, and electricity transmission lines . . .
Closing VY could raise power costs
Replacing the energy supplied by Vermont Yankee with 100 percent renewable energy sources could cost Vermont more than $1.2 billion, according to a consultant retained by the state to evaluate the alternatives to continued operation of the nuclear power plant in Vernon.
Raising the needed capital “would be a huge challenge for Vermont’s utilities,” stated the consultant.
“This portfolio of renewable resources would cost approximately $73 per megawatt hour (MWh) to develop and operate and would be more expensive than . . .
No action on wind project
MANCHESTER — The Select Board decided, on a 3-1 vote, to take no position Tuesday on a small-scale, temporary wind research project being proposed for Little Equinox.
The project, which is before the state’s Public Service Board, would construct an 80-foot residential wind turbine on the mountain for two years for testing purposes.
No support from board
It is being proposed by Endless Energy Corp., a Maine-based wind farm development company, with two joint applicants from Vermont. Earth Turbines wants . . .
Board votes neutrality on wind tower
MANCHESTER — After more than an hour of discussion at Tuesday’s meeting, the Select Board voted to take no position on a proposal to keep a wind measurement tower on Little Equinox for two more years.
Endless Energy, a company based in Yarmouth, Maine, has filed a request with the Vermont Public Service Board to use an existing wind measurement tower to test two products for Vermont companies.
If the permit is granted, Earth Turbines Inc. of Williston would put . . .
Manchester board takes no position on wind tower
MANCHESTER – After more than an hour of discussion at Tuesday’s meeting, the Select Board voted to take no position on a proposal to extend by two years the life of a wind measurement tower on Little Equinox.
Harley Lee, president of Endless Energy of Yarmouth, Maine, explained at the meeting that the wind measurement tower will host an 80-foot high residential wind turbine and a box-like device used to take wind-measurements.
Both are prototype products for Vermont companies.
Select . . .
Residents voice concerns over wind project
Bears and foreign conglomerates were among the concerns citizens from in and around Readsboro brought to Green Mountain National Forest officials Wednesday night.
The open house for receiving public input on the Deerfield Wind Project’s Environmental Impact Statement was held at the Readsboro Central School’s gym. National Forest officials had released a draft if the statement for public review and comment. Part of the process in releasing a final version of the impact statement is to get comments from the . . .
Project impact on bear habitat feared
READSBORO — The proposed Deerfield Wind project, an expansion of the state’s only existing wind energy facility in Searsburg, could have a big effect on the bear population in the area.
Exactly how big is a matter of dispute, with the U.S. Forest Service hedging its bets until the Vermont Public Service Board makes a decision on whether construction of the 17-turbine project would be in the “public good.” The state technical hearings on the project, postponed from September, are due . . .
Wind project questioned
READSBORO- Only 16 people were on hand to learn about the Deerfield Wind Project and the recently released Draft Environmental Impact Statement. Concerns ranged from wildlife to public benefits. Even though attendance was slim, that didn’t mean the open house lacked contentiousness.
The Green Mountain National Forest held the first of two open houses for the proposed Deerfield Wind Project. Meg Mitchell, U.S. Forest supervisor, and Bob Bayer, project coordinator, gave a brief overview. The DEIS provides analysis of the . . .
Impact on bear population could affect wind project
(Host) The impact of a proposed southern Vermont wind development on black bears promises to be a major issue in the project’s approval process.
The Deerfield Wind Project calls for seventeen, 400-foot turbines to be built on Green Mountain National Forest land in Searsburg and Readsboro. The project would be near a smaller wind farm operated by Green Mountain Power on private property in Searsburg.
The Forest Service has prepared a Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the proposal and is . . .
Do the math on wind power costs and benefits
In 1972, at the 139th meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Edward Lorenz, the founder of modern chaos theory, gave a talk titled “Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?” His work with chaos theory had shown convincingly that weather is a chaotic system, i.e., one in which very small modifications in conditions at one point in time can lead to enormous (and unpredictable) changes at a later . . .
