May 30, 2014
New Hampshire

Iberdrola officially scraps New Hampshire wind project

by NAW Staff | North American Windpower | Friday May 30 2014 | www.nawindpower.com

Iberdrola Renewables has decided to abandon its Wild Meadows wind project, which the company was working to develop in Danbury and Alexandria, N.H.

The 75.9 MW project would have become Iberdrola’s third wind farm in New Hampshire: The 24 MW Lempster and 48 MW Groton projects were commissioned in 2008 and 2012, respectively.

However, it appears the developer has had to contend with local opposition and regulatory hurdles in the state. Iberdrola released the following two-paragraph statement regarding its decision to stop pursuing Wild Meadows:

“While we continue to make significant progress resolving various outstanding issues at our Groton wind farm, our experience with that situation combined with the current political and regulatory climate in New Hampshire leave us no choice but to end our efforts to develop and invest $150 million at the potential Wild Meadows wind farm.

“We’re sorry that the vast majority in New Hampshire who want the benefits of clean, affordable power and millions of dollars in local economic development won’t get to see that occur anytime soon. We look forward to trying to work with state and local officials to return New Hampshire to a place that truly wants to bring renewable energy projects into the state again.”

The company declined to comment any further.

In February, though, Iberdrola Renewables spokesperson Paul Copleman told NAW that the company was halting work on Wild Meadows indefinitely after the New Hampshire Site Evaluation Committee (SEC) said the project application was incomplete and returned it to Iberdrola.

Copleman also explained the developer was instead focusing on resolving issues with its operating Groton wind farm. “Some people have raised an issue with the permit granted to us by the SEC based on some work that was done during construction and some operational questions raised by the state fire marshal,” he said in February.

Notably, the Wild Meadows project was one of three wind projects that had won power purchase agreements with Massachusetts utilities last year. At the time, Gov. Deval Patrick, D-Mass., hailed the deals as “the largest procurement of renewable energy in New England.”

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2014/05/30/iberdrola-officially-scraps-new-hampshire-wind-project/