Wind farmer plans community meeting
Toolbox
By Gordon Dritschilo Staff Writer - Published: April 1, 2009
A would-be wind farmer will meet with people to answer questions about a planned development centered on Ira.
Per White-Hansen, president of Vermont Community Wind, said he has agreed to appear at a public forum at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 6, in the Community Hall in Tinmouth. Marshall Squier of Tinmouth organized the meeting last week after stumbling across the company's Web site.
The Web site said the company is looking at a site in West Rutland, Poultney, Tinmouth, Clarendon and Middletown Springs in addition to Ira but officials in most of those towns said they had heard little or nothing from the company.
White-Hansen said the company, which signed a lease with a major landowner in Ira and has queried West Rutland about leasing town-owned land, is not publicity-averse.
"We've been just looking at the area," he said. "It's all preliminary. We were just about to roll out the public part of this and we have a PR firm that's going to be helping with that. … We have no intention of being secretive or not dealing with the public. It's all a matter of timing."
The company has applied to the Public Service Board to erect a meteorological tower in Ira to measure the wind there, and White-Hansen said they will need at least a year's worth of data from the tower.
"We're looking to do the studies and see if it is feasible," he said. "We've got to be on the ground, got to see if we can build the roads up to the ridge. There's a lot we have to do."
Other studies will look at dangers to local wildlife. White-Hansen said they have already determined they would be able to feed power into the local grid at the West Rutland substation.
"Our thing is to make the power here and use it here," he said. "Hopefully, we can power Rutland County."
White-Hansen said he has identified 60 potential tower sites that could produce a total of 80 megawatts. He said construction will cost an estimated $2 million per megawatt, but he could not discuss his financing.
White-Hansen said he has personally developed one other wind project, the Findhorn Wind Park in Scotland.
"It's a small-scale community wind farm," he said. "It only has four towers."
gordon.dritschilo@rutlandherald.com
(This article was edited April 1, 2009, to correct the time of the public forum.)
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