AS INTEREST picks up among energy companies seeking to build wind farms in rural Vermont, some lawmakers are pushing a three-year moratorium on any new ridge-line wind projects in the Green Mountain State. That comes after two projects, one with 16 turbines, the other with 21, have gone on line in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, and while Seneca Mountain Wind, a wind-energy joint venture, is studying the feasibility of siting another 35 turbines in that remote area.
Residents of towns near proposed wind projects are concerned about noise and deforestation, along with the loss of some pristine views. Their opinions should be heard as part of the state’s existing permitting process, which gives serious weight to the feelings of towns that openly reject wind projects.
Comments
One of the areas of concern with the ridge-line wind farms in Vermont is that the optimimum time for windpower generation on ridge-lines is at night, when consumers of electricity in these rurals areas are not using that much electricity. As such the windpower/energy created is not used. This is a result of one of the most vexing engineering problems associated with windpower/energy, as I understand it, from what I have read, is it cannot be substantively stored, as such, if the wind power/energy does not get used as it flows into the grid, it's gone. The issue folks in Vermont are concerned about,understandably,is why should 200 year old trees on ridgelines be cut down and replaced with wind turbines that might not deliver as advertised. I think it makes a lot of sense to determine how the current ridge-line wind farms are performing before forging ahead with new projects.