January 24, 2007
New York
New York
Noble Environmental Power will work with Chateaugay Central School to create curriculum for renewable-energy and local-history class work.
Noble’s Dan Boyd gave School Board members a quick overview Monday night of the two wind-farm projects proposed in the towns of Chateaugay and Bellmont, which would create a total of 86 wind turbines on 6,300 acres.
Each tower is about 265 feet tall and holds a blade assembly with a 125-foot span from end to end.
Boyd said Noble wants to meet “with principals, teachers and parents and anybody that wants to create a local-history curriculum and (lessons) for renewable-energy choices.”
He said a similar offer was made to Northern Adirondack Central School, but it hasn’t really gotten off the ground.
“We don’t have as much support from the School Board as we do here,” he said. “Chateaugay was very enthusiastic about it.
“We’re going to keep in touch with them, and we’ll attend a lot of School Board meetings from now on to keep the dialogue open.”
As for the financial details of a wind-farm operation that would impact the School District, Boyd said no specifics were covered.
“It was really just what the projects would be and to explain the benefits they could see from a PILOT similar to what we did in Clinton County,” he said, referring to a negotiation for payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreements on wind-farm projects in the towns of Ellenburg, Clinton and Altona.
There are no negotiations under way in the Franklin County towns, but Boyd gave the board members an example of what the district could see, based on the formula used in Clinton County.
He said Noble pays $6,000 per megawatt in Clinton County, and the proposed energy output of the 86 turbines proposed in Chateaugay and Bellmont is 129 megawatts.
That comes to $774,000.
Of that total, Chateaugay Central would get half, or $387,000 a year.
The towns and Franklin County would each get a quarter of the remaining money, or $193,500 each, using this sample formula.
Even though no real numbers are being discussed yet in Chateaugay, Boyd said District Superintendent Paul Harrica had the best idea.
“He said he’s not counting on the money and is not including any of it in the budget,” he said, adding that if the district had a successful negotiation in the future, the cash would go in the general fund.
“He said, ‘It’s counted as found money.'”
By Denise A. Raymo
Staff Writer
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2007/01/24/wind-company-to-work-with-schools/