Pa. company hopes to harness Lempster’s ideal winds
By STEPHEN SEITZ
NH Sunday News Correspondent
September 11, 2005
LEMPSTER — Approximately 70 people with questions about a proposed wind farm along the ridge of Lempster Mountain had a chance to get them addressed at an open house yesterday sponsored by Community Energy Co.
Besides company officials and a representative from Public Service of New Hampshire, there were also computer-generated photographs of how the power turbines might look from various distances in town. Also pictured was one of the actual turbines.
Jeff Keeler, spokesman for the Pennsylvania-based company that wants to build the 25-megawatt project, said he wanted the community to get as much information as possible.
While building permits have been secured, "there are a number of things we have to work out with the town," he said. "We have to discuss things like access roads and taxes. We're hoping to work with everybody. We’ll be holding public hearings to gather comments. We’re making an effort to respond to community concerns."
The plan is to place 12 to 15 wind turbines, each at 230 feet in height, generating about 70,000 megawatt hours per year. This is enough, the company says, to power 12,000 homes. The electricity would go through PSNH’s regional power grid, and plans are to go online next year or sometime in 2007. The area was choosen, said company officals, because of excellent wind conditions.
"By federal law," said PSNH official Tod Wicker, "we have to buy power from this interconnect project if they so desire."
The electricity would be distributed through the nearest substation, in Newport.
"It’ll produce more power than Lempster, Unity and Newport would use," Wicker said.
Proponents, skeptics and the curious seemed to have visited the open house in equal measure.
"Basically, I’m opposed," said Bob Dubois, who moved to Lempster from Nashua three years ago. "If we open this up to contractors who want to put up windmills, what else are we going to put up that we don’t want or need? I moved out of the city because I don’t want to deal with the city situation."
"I think it’s good," said longtime resident Maddy Ferland, who said she liked the clean energy aspect of wind power. "I’ve heard nothing but negative things and I came here to hear the other side. If it’ll help cut down on using oil and coal in the long run, I think it’ll be good."
"I’m half and half on it," said resident Richard Schur. "I just hope the town doesn’t have to invest a lot of money building and maintaining access roads."
Korrie Goodspeed said her father will be leasing some of his land to Community Energy in the event the project goes through.
"He’s 100 percent in favor," she said, "and there’ll be a turbine about 200 feet from my parents’ house."
Goodspeed said she conducted an informal experiment at her office; having heard aesthetic objections to the wind turbines, she altered the wallpaper on her computer to depict a wind farm.
"Everyone who walks by takes a look and says, ’That’s beautiful. Where is that?’" she said. "With the price of gas the way it is, people need to open their eyes and keep an open mind."
Richard Podolsky, an environmental scientist on hand to answer questions, said wind turbine technology, tough environmental standards and lots of study combined to make wind power safe and efficient.
"The first thing I do when I look at a project like this is ask, what is the destiny of this property?" he said. "A lot of it could go to second-home development."
Further information on the project can be found at Community Energy’s Web site, www.newwindenergy.com.
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