Change In The Air
Town ponders effects of proposed turbines
By Lee Coleman
Gazette Reporter for the sunday Gazette
Sept. 10, 2006 Section C1
Will residents want as many as 40 nearly 400-foot-high electricity-generating
wind turbines on a mountain ridge in Gireenfield?
This is one of the questions town officials are asking as plans
for a wind farm on 2,500 acres in the northwestern part of the town
are discussed.
Airtricity, an Irish company with U.S. headquarters in Chicago,
unveiled plans for the wind farm this spring.
Company officials stress that the process of creating such a source
of renewable electric energy is a long one, and Airtricity is just
in the exploratory stages.
"I saw some of these things at the Port of Albany," town
Supervisor Albert Janik said of the turbines. "These things
are unbelievably large." The wind turbines were being shipped
through the port to another destination.
Airtricity officials say the turbine tower is 240 feet high with
a three-winged rotor extending another L50 feet i4 the air, for a
total height of 390 feet.
Janik said such a project would be "brand new to the town."
"There is nothing in the zoning code about it," he said. "It's
renewable energy, so it's hard to oppose them."
The proposed site is on the Kayaderosseras mountain range and "well
off the ridge line," Janik said. "It's up over the ridge
and set back far enough from the ridge" so that the enormous
turbines and rotors would be hard to see from the Route 9N corridor,
he said.
When Airtricity made its public presentation on Airtricity's plans
in April the approximately 50 residents attending the meeting had
lots of questions. One of the main ones was whether people would
be able to see or hear the turbines from their homes./
Janik said the Town Board wants to hear what residents think about
the wind farm concept.
Airtricity has an option on 2,500 acres of wooded land currently
owned by the paper-making company Finch Pruyn & Co. Inc. of Glens
Falls.
The Town Board amended town zoning regulations in June, allowing
temporary data collection towers to be located in two of the town's
most rural zones.
This will allow Airtricity to erect a 60-meter tall (about 190 feet)
test tower on the proposed site.
Town officials stressed when the zoning law was amended that providing
for the test towers was in no way endorsing the wind farm project
itself.
Doug Colbeck, Airtricity's new vice president for the Northeast
Region, said the company needs at least one year of wind test data
to show financial institutions. The wind feasibility study shows
the bankers that the multi-million dollar project would have adequate
wind to turn the turbines and generate electricity.
The wind study also provides the company with information on where
the wind turbines should be placed, Colbeck said.
"You correlate a year of data (from the test tower) and compare
it with wind information, long--term data" from other locations
in the region, such as a local airport, Colbeck said.
Each turbine and rotor assembly costs about $2 million, the company
says.
The Greenfield proposal is for the wind farm to generate between
50 megawatts'and 80 megawatts of electricity.
Each wind turbine would generate between 1.5 megawatts and two megawatts
of electricity. One megawatt of electricity can provide electricity
to 500 households, according to Airtricity.
Thomas Siragusa, a town Planning Board member and a member of Greenfield
Concerned Citizens, said the planning board is reviewing Airtricity's
application for the test tower.
Company engineers want to have the temporary tower located on the
mountain ridge for more than 12 months but less than 24 months.
"They have to come back with additional plans for road grading," Siragusa
said about Airtricity. The company would like to erect the tower
this fall.
"It looks generally straightforward," Siragusa said about
the tower plan. "I don't foresee any issues."
The Greenfield Concerned Citizens, a group of residents who were
strongly opposed to new strip mining proposals in the town several
years ago, has not taken a position on the wind farm proposal.
"I've heard more positive comments [than negative ones]," Siragusa
said. He said many people feel creating renewable, clean energy,
rather than relying on foreign oil, is the "direction we should
go."
Siragusa lives on Plank Road. One of the access points to the wind
farm site is the old Plank Road jeep trail off Lake Desolation Road.
He said the location is quite remote."The [mountain] ridge
levels off at 1,900 feet," Siragusa said. He said the closer
the wind farm is located to the so-called "blue line" that
marks the start of the Adirondack Park, the less the turbines would
be visible from populated areas of the town.
Last year there were 280 wind turbines in operation in New York
state, according to the American Wind Energy Association. Another
100 turbines were being planned for 2006 in the state, including
55 turbines at the Maple Ridge Wind Farm near Lowville southeast
of Watertown. None of these projects were developed by Airtricity.
In July, Airtricity Inc., the North American affiliate of Dublin,
Ireland-based Airtricity Holdings Limited, announced that it intends
to build wind farm projects in the United States in 2007 "with
an aggregate expected capacity of up to 400 megawatts."
The company is completing construction on two wind farm projects
in Texas, its first in the United States. Airtricity has lined up
$500 million in financing for the United States wind farm projects.
MAJOR ROLE
"The continued and irreversible depletion of fossil fuel stocks
regardless of any prospects for nuclear energy, means that renewable
sources such as wind are certain to play a major role in the future
energy strategy of the U.S. and other major economies around the
world," said Eddie O'Connor, Airtricity's chief executive, in
a prepared statement.
Airtricity has operating wind farms in Ireland, Scotland, England
and Wales. The company describes itself as "the world's leading
renewable energy company, developing and operating wind farms."
The company is both a generator and supplier of green electricity
and currently supplies green electricity to over 45,000 commercial
customers in Ireland. Founded in 1999 Airtricity employs more than
200 people in its offices in Ireland, Scotland, England and the United
States.
Reach Gazette reporter Lee Coleman at 587-1780 or at Icoleman@dailygazette.net
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