Cutline: Follow the latest co-op news wherever you are. ECT.coop is enabled for many mobile and Blackberry devices, so you can always be on top of the news.
Renewable Energy
Big Wind Advances in Vermont
Vermont co-op is co-partner in major wind project
By the end of this year, a Vermont co-op should know whether state regulators will help it and an investor-owned utility usher in a new era of wind energy with the first large-scale utility project in the Green Mountain State.
A Vermont co-op awaits word on whether it can bring windmills like these to the state. (Photo By: Minnkota Power)
Next month, project developers Vermont Electric Co-op, Johnson, and Green Mountain Power Corp. will go before the state’s Public Service Board, which will determine whether the Kingdom Community Wind project meets the criteria for a certificate of public good.
Despite the state’s past reluctance to build wind projects, chances for approval of the 63-megawatt project look good, said David Hallquist, the co-op’s CEO. That’s because residents in Lowell, where the turbines will be located, approved it by a 342-114 vote at a recent town meeting.
“We see this as a green light to move forward,” said Hallquist, who, along with other supporters, mounted an intensive grassroots campaign to win the hearts and minds of townfolk. “We have support from the local utilities and town.”
Many developers have tried to build a major wind project in the Green Mountain state, but none has succeeded. Citizens “are proud of their landscape,” said Hallquist, and opposition has doomed other projects, including one in Rutland. A 16-turbine project by First Wind Corp. in Sheffield has “been stuck in the permitting phase” for five years.
“As CEO, I personally met every week for over a year with people in their houses. It was important to spend time with them,” said Hallquist about the campaign, which also consisted of several bus trips to visit a wind project in nearby Lempster, N.H.
“We weren’t convinced at all that they would go for it. I told people, ‘My job is to bring you the facts,’” said Hallquist, adding that the development team was prepared to forsake the project if residents rejected it.
If state regulators approve Kingdom Community Wind, construction can begin next year, and its two dozen turbines can start spinning in 2012. The turbines will dot a three-mile stretch of the Lowell Mountain range ridgeline and generate enough electricity to power about 20,000 homes.
Tags: Renewable Energy, Wind Energy