Windfarms Are Not Quite the Environmentalist Dream

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When a wind farm was proposed for Reddington Township in Maine, an hour
north of Lewiston, the Appalachian Trail Conference or ATC took notice.

The ATC is devoted to protecting the famous hiking trail, which winds
through mountains from Georgia to Maine.

Its members tend to support clean energy.

But they oppose development in wilderness areas.

And to JT Horn of the ATC, the windfarm proposal is clearly that.

Right now the only development is sugarloaf, otherwise it's completely remote. We have real concerns about the visual impact and also the effect of roads and development in such a remote place.

Windfarms are not just a series of giant propeller-like fans on towers.

They need roads to provide access for maintenance.

They're so tall, they usually have to be lighted to warn low-flying aircraft.

Nonetheless, Horn admits the ATC's stance has been hard for some members to swallow.

54 00 our opposition to the redington project has generated a lot of press and a lot of debates within own org. In this circumstance it pits scenic values and values of wilderness against clean energy and that's a tough tradeoff.

Horn points out that the ATC has taken a neutral stance on other wind projects that are further from the trail and in more developed areas.

The Reddington proposal isn't the only one causing controversies.

Wind farm battles have sprung up in Vermont, Massachusetts, and another location in Maine.

Recently wind companies have begun approaching towns in New Hampshire too.

They've met with officials in the North Country towns of Randolph, Berlin and Gorham.

They also proposed erecting a test tower on Gardner Mountain in Lyman, a little ways west of Franconia.

Lisa Linowes and her husband recently bought a farm in Lyman.

She has no compunctions about opposing wind towers.

41 55 They're very visible from long distances. At this point there's nothing atop gardner mt. there's nothing up there, it's a beautiful area, and what it would end up looking like is a runway.

Construction impacts and a changed view are environmentalists' major concerns, but they're not the only ones.

In wintertime, windmills can create a hazard by tossing large chunks of ice from their blades.

And birdwatches worry that the towers can mean death for hapless birds.

But John Bianchi of the National Audubon Society says windmills are now a lot more bird-friendly than they used to be.

A lot of the impression that folks have about the impact of wind plants on birds have been formed by the first generation of wind plants, and a lot of that problem has been mitigated by new designs which really are harder for birds to impact.

Audubon officially supports the development of wind power, but they have a caveat.

Windmills should be located away from migratory pathways and certain kinds of nesting grounds.

While it would seem that they would be natural allies, the wind power industry has to work hard to convince environmentalists that windmills are an appropriate technology.

Tom Gray, deputy Executive Director of the American Wind Energy Association, says they are tall but they're not unsightly.

18 40 the tower that the turbine is installed on is 200 to 300 feet high, the rotor is about the same diameter, we'd be looking at something like a large airplane propeller but its moving very slowly.

Depending on the location, a company might install anywhere from 5 to 30 windmills along a single ridge line.

Gray argues wind towers aren't necessarily more offensive than farm silos.

He says the industry is also working to reduce the number of lights the towers would need.

19 112 At the moment we're looking at a regime that would call for lights being spaced half a mile apart, turned on and off on a synchronized basis, so a pilot can be aware there's something big down there. They're testing a regime like that on a windfarm in Oklahoma and my understanding is its going well.

Gray says the wind power industry has learned a lot from ski areas about reducing erosion and destruction of mountaintop sites.

And he says there are plenty of partially developed mountains, away from wilderness areas, where the impact of wind farms would not be as great.

23 47 There are abandoned ski areas. Those seem to me like good initial targets. Mts that are not on the Appalachian trail or the long trail. There are I think a number of potential sites.

At this point there don't appear to be any imminent wind projects in New Hampshire.

The company that approached the town of Lyman has withdrawn its application.

And despite news accounts earlier this summer, no company has made a formal proposal to put up a windfarm in the Berlin-Gorham area.

Meanwhile, one group is hoping to support environmentally sensitive wind development across the region.

The Conservation Law Foundation or CLF has launched what it calls a wind siting collaborative.

It's aimed at helping communities weigh the positives and negatives of windfarm proposals.

Nancy Girard directs CLF's New Hampshire office.

17 09 We've come to the opinion that we have to make tradeoffs with wind just like we've made tradeoffs environmentally with other technologies. These need to be made with the community because there will be local impacts and community has to be part of process.

Girard says some sites are more appropriate for windmills than others.

But she says people weighing the impact of a local proposal shouldn't forget the big picture.

If windmills can make a significant contribution to the electric grid, they could reduce the need for power plants that burn fossil fuels.

That means the same windmills that dot mountain ridges, could bring cleaner air and clearer views to those mountains.

For NHPR news I'm trish Anderton.