National Wind Watch: Wind Energy News » Public outreach plans expanding for Tug Hill wind projects

LOWVILLE – A pair of informational sessions on the proposed Number Three Wind Farm have been set for later this month, even as public involvement program plans for that project and another proposed Tug Hill wind farm are expanding to meet state expectations.

Open house events on the Number Three Wind Farm project are scheduled from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Aug. 24 at the Harrisburg town office at 7886 Cobb Road and from 9 a.m. to noon Aug. 25 at Invenergy’s local office at 7586 S. State St. in Lowville.

“We’re looking forward to meeting with more local community members interested in wind development in Lewis County,” Eric Miller, director of business development at Invenergy LLC, said in a statement. “Monday’s announcement of New York State’s new Clean Energy Standard reinforces the importance of developing our clean energy resources in New York, and Number Three Wind is part of our clean energy future.”

Invenergy is proposing the 35 to 50 turbines in the towns of Harrisburg, Lowville and Denmark, as well as up to 100 acres of photovoltaic solar panels. Tentative plans would be to start construction in 2019.

“At the open houses, members of the Invenergy development team will present project maps, answer questions on project specifics and explain how to join the stakeholder list to receive regular updates of project milestones,” states a company release.

More information is available at the project website: www.numberthreewind.com.

Back in June, Avangrid Renewables held a similar session at the Harrisburg Town Hall for the proposed Deer River Wind Farm, slated to include up to 40 turbines in the towns of Pinckney, Harrisburg and Montague. The company plans to hold other morning and evening sessions sometime in September and has also opened an office here at 7650 N. State St. that is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays or by appointment.

As part of the state’s Article 10 review process, both Invenergy and Avangrid earlier this year submitted draft public involvement plans providing details on the developers’ plans and ways they intended to keep the public informed about their respective projects. Officials with the state Department of Public Service then critiqued those plans, and both companies have since issued revised versions that expand the scope of their public outreach.

For both projects, state officials recommended that the definition of adjacent landowners be expanded to include anyone owning property within 2,500 feet of a wind turbine, solar collector array or substation or within 500 feet of other project components like collection lines or meteorological towers; the projects’ initial plans defined them as anyone within 500 feet of a turbine.

At the Department of Public Service’s recommendation, the companies also updated their respective stakeholder lists to increase the number of local and state officials that are to be kept informed about progress on the projects and better defined project boundaries.

For the Deer River project, developers – at the state’s request – identified the project area as 44.24 square miles and the study area as 294.75 square miles, extending five miles in all directions from the project area boundary.

After the revised plan was submitted by Avangrid representatives about a month ago, state officials issued a second letter requesting a few other revisions; they primarily involve the addition of even more stakeholders – including the Lewis County Recreation, Forestry and Parks Department and Jefferson County Highway Department – because the project area had been expanded from the original submission.