LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME

[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]


Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

Get weekly updates

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Paypal

Donate via Stripe

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Proposed Glasgow-area project goes down in size once again 

A wind farm proposed in Valley County in northeastern Montana keeps getting smaller, but the developer insists the project isn’t dead.

Stephen Wiley of Texas-based GreenHunter Wind Energy LLC, said the company now hopes to construct a 10-megawatt wind farm entirely on private land.

The initial proposal was for a 500-megawatt facility covering 20,000 acres of publicly and privately owned property.

Conservation interests raised concerns because the project was located so close the Bitter Creek Wilderness study area, which is known for its views and wildlife.

GreenHunter scaled its plans back to 170 megawatts and then to 50.

This week, Wiley said the opposition made the larger plans too risky, prompting the third reduction in size to 10 megawatts.

“From my perspective, it was a risk element I just didn’t need to deal with,” Wiley said.

However, the project remains important to the company, he said.

It will be a test site of new wind turbines the company has purchased from a Chinese company called Min Yang.

Min Yang is the first Chinese company to export turbines to the U.S. market, Wiley said.

If the turbines prove satisfactory, they would be used for other projects, he said.

European manufacturers, who dominate the market, and U.S. companies have a backlog of orders because demand is so strong, Wiley said.

“Because they have not been used in the U.S., we plan to use this Valley County project as a test project,” he said.

Larry Mires, who works with Two Rivers Economic Growth, the Valley County economic development agency, said residents are disappointed the project has been reduced so much.

Environmental groups decry coal-fired power but when a green energy project is proposed they oppose it because it’s going to hurt the view, he said.

“I find that really hard to swallow,” Mires said.

Mark Good, the outreach coordinator for the Montana Wilderness Association, said MWA isn’t against wind power. Some areas are better suited for development, whether it’s wind, natural gas or oil development, he said.

Good said the large project in the original plans was literally located on the border of the wilderness study area.

“The Bitter Creek Wilderness Study Area is not the only place the wind blows in eastern and central Montana,” Good said.

Mires said the towers were sited there because that’s where the wind was the best.

“You don’t pick where the wind blows,” he said.

By Karl Puckett
Staff Writer

Great Falls Tibune

24 February 2008

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Funding
   Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)
Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI TG TG Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook

Wind Watch on Linked In Wind Watch on Mastodon