October 15, 2011
Maine

Farmington wind turbine project to be presented Monday

Posted by Bobbie Hanstein, Daily Bulldog, www.dailybulldog.com 14 October 2011

FARMINGTON – The planning board on Monday night will hear about a proposal to install four wind turbines off Bailey Hill Road. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the downstairs conference room of the Municipal Building.

Last summer, representatives with Associated Wind Developers from Plymouth, Mass. began making inquiries for the project at the town’s code enforcement office. Steve Kaiser, code enforcement officer, handed copies of pertinent town ordinances to Brian Kuhn of AWD and Aeronautica Windpower, which sells 750 kilowatt, “Queen-sized” or smaller turbines for use in populated areas. The overall height of the 750 Series turbines proposed, according to Aeronautica Windpower’s product specifications, is between 241 feet up to 302 feet tall.

Konrad Baily of Bailey Farm, has registered with the town an intent to erect a 50-foot tall meteorological tower with an anemometer to measure wind speeds on his farmland off Bailey Hill Road, which is located a few miles east of High and Maple streets intersection in Farmington.

Matthew Damon, an associate site analyst with Associated Wind Developers, said in an email his company plans on “seeking to enter (into) a power purchase agreement with either a local municipality, school, or company that would be interested in purchasing green energy at or beneath the current retail rate through net-metering.”

Among the town ordinance copies Kaiser handed over was the proposed draft of the wind energy performance standards which is currently under zoning board construction. The draft presented last spring included a requirement the town be informed of proposed placement of residential and commercial wind energy systems and regulating permitting for such systems that included set backs, decibel level limits and other health and safety precautions. Voters at town meeting in April took no action on the advice of town officials until details, particularly decibel level limits, of the standards could be studied further.

According to Kaiser, AWD representatives said even though the updated standards hadn’t been adopted yet, they would be able to meet the standards should the project on Bailey Farm move forward.

Kaiser termed Monday’s presentation by AWD as “testing the waters.”


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/10/15/farmington-wind-turbine-project-to-be-presented-monday/