Despite the protests from other areas, wind turbines are making their way into the Valley. The first one was just built in Augusta County. While this turbine is much smaller than ones that have been opposed in Pendleton and Highland counties, people in other areas have blocked their construction.

Highland New Wind Development says not only will its facility not have an overly negative impact to wildlife, but that in fact it will contribute to reducing fossil fuel use in Virginia.

No surprises here. The staff of the State Corporation Commission has concluded Highland New Wind Development’s proposal does not pose a problem for most of the requirements needed to acquire a state level permit. The one critical area SCC staff chose to leave in the hands of others is the potential environmental impacts created by the project related principally to avian wildlife.

While the State Corporation Commission continues to evaluate Highland New Wind Development’s application for a wind utility permit, lawsuits surrounding the proposal still remain unresolved. More than a year ago, Highland citizens and landowners legally challenged Highland County supervisors’ decisions regarding the facility. Originally three cases were brought against the county — one challenging the decision to grant HNWD’s local conditional use permit; one challenging the county’s decision on height requirements; and one challenging the county planning commission’s finding with regard to the comprehensive plan. The first two have been combined in the courts. All were appealed by the citizens’ attorney, David Bailey, to the Virginia Supreme Court.

Friddle and Staggers presented the group with a PowerPoint presentation on the proposed Interstate transmission line, known as the Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line (TrAIL). The new transmission line will be 240 miles and will be 500 kilovolts. The line should run from southwestern Pennsylvania to West Virginia, then to Northern Virginia. The proposed cost for the project is estimated to be $1.4 billion. According to Friddle, the new transmission line is needed so that the supply of electricity meets the demand for electricity. “Without this project, it's determined that by 2011 there will be 12 electrical problems with possible blackouts and brownouts,” Friddle said.

Like its Highland neighbor, one of Bath County’s greatests assets is its scenic mountain ranges and the natural resources they provide. It also has some of the highest winds in Virginia and is therefore attractive to industrial wind energy companies. Its vistas atop the surrounding ridge lines make it attractive to other kinds of development as well. Bath planner Miranda Redinger is urging the planning commission to seriously consider some sort of ridge top protection ordinance.

Residents and landowners near the proposed Highland New Wind Development utility site have long expressed their belief the project poses many threats, not only to the environment but to the quality of life in Highland County as related to its economy. Ralph H. Swecker, Chris Swecker, Pendleton Goodall, McChesney Goodall, William Goodall, Wayne Goodall, and Gregory Warnock filed their post-hearing brief in the case that was similar to The Nature Conservancy’s position on environmental protection, but also pointed out the detrimental effects on tourism in the area and historic sites. The citizens’ brief says HNWD failed to meet its burden of proof that environmental impacts are acceptable; failed to provide all the information requested by state agencies in the process; failed to show how it would minimize environmental impacts; and failed to show the project is not contrary to public interest.

The State Corporation Commission staff has recommended approval of a proposed wind energy farm in Highland County provided the developers can resolve concerns about birds, bats and other environmental issues. An SCC hearing examiner is expected to decide by early March whether to issue a permit to build and operate the facility, which would be the first industrial wind farm in Virginia. “We remain optimistic they’ll grant the permit, although we remain concerned” about state and federal agencies’ requests for additional environmental research, said Frank Maisano, a consultant for the project’s developer, Highland New Wind Development LLC. The SCC’s review is one of the final regulatory hurdles for the project, but it faces continued legal challenges that both sides expect to reach the Virginia Supreme Court, which would take up the issue for the first time.

According to a survey in Patrick County, 73.3 percent of responders support a permanent ban on tall structures in the county, a ban that may be put into place next month. About 14,500 real estate tax bills were sent out in September along with the survey questions, according to officials at the Patrick County administrator’s office. The Patrick County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 in September to approve a new ordinance that “prohibits the erection of structures over 100 feet tall,” thus keeping wind turbines from being built in the county for at least six months.

County officials estimated that, in addition to spending $5 million in the next five years to improve energy efficiency in its public buildings, Arlington will spend more than $400,000 in the coming months to plant 1,200 trees, buy more wind-generated power, hand out more than 2,000 fluorescent light bulbs at fairs and other events and provide free energy audits of more than a dozen homes. County officials want to give residents who buy hybrid cars a break on their personal property tax — an unusual perk for a Virginia community. Cost estimates on the tax break are not available. The tax break would require approval from the Arlington County Board, but other elements of the plan, such as distributing light bulbs, can go forward without board permission.

A Richmond-based energy company has bought a 50 percent stake in a wind turbine project in Grant County, West Virginia that residents are seeking to block. Dominion, one of the country’s largest energy producers, announced today it plans to develop the first phase of the 300 (m) million-dollar project, to be located near the company’s coal-fired energy plant at Mount Storm.

The 15-story towers and crackling cables that are planned to cut across the Northern Virginia countryside are just red lines on a map, a paper illustration of what could come. But for Cameron Eaton, who learned shortly after Thanksgiving that one of the proposed routes for a new high-voltage power line slices across her Fauquier County property, they have already brought the specter of financial ruin. She bought her 100-acre Delaplane farm last year, when it was an overgrown slice of land anchored by a rundown old farmhouse just off Interstate 66. She plowed all her savings into it. To pay down her $1 million mortgage and build up her horse business, she planned to sell a five-acre chunk within a couple of years. Then came what her neighbors have come to regard as “the black cloud.”

Opposition to Highland New Wind Development’s proposal for a wind energy utility here has been quite vocal, but at least two Virginia localities publicly support the project, and hope to purchase the electricity it generates. HNWD’s permit application remains under review at the State Corporation Commission, but officials from the City of Charlottesville and Arlington County are urging the SCC to approve the company’s certificate to build and operate a 39-megawatt facility in Highland. During evidentiary hearings in November, Charlottesville city councilman Kevin Lynch addressed the SCC, saying Charlottesville hopes to purchase the power HNWD’s plant would produce.

While Highland County still remains the only Virginia locality actively targeted for the state’s first industrial wind power project, Bath County should get ahead of the curve on the issue, Bath officials warn. Bath County planner Miranda Redinger attended the regional meeting on a possible scoring system for renewable energy sources recently, and was surprised to learn there is a strong potential for wind energy development in Bath County. “Apparently Bath is priority one for wind development. I always thought winds measuring four and five were good for turbines, but it’s three to five — Bath has a lot of three,” she told county planners Monday.

Dominion Virginia Power has proposed routes for a high-voltage power line that would cut through parts of Prince William, Loudoun and Fauquier counties, moving forward a project that officials say is necessary to avoid blackouts but critics contend will unnecessarily scar some of the most fiercely preserved land in the state.

Bats and birds continued to be the main topic of discussion last week as testimony about Highland New Wind Development’s proposed turbine utility concluded at the State Corporation Commission. Expert witnesses for the company maintained their position that there simply was not enough evidence to show the 18-20 turbines atop Allegheny Mountain would threaten avian species. Most of the back-and-forth between experts and attorneys centered on the environmental sensitivity of the site in Highland County, and little new information surfaced about what could be Virginia’s first industrial wind energy facility.

The Patrick County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 Monday to enact an ordinance prohibiting the construction of structures exceeding 100 feet in height. The tall structures ordinance would ban the 400-foot wind turbines that a wind energy company has expressed interest in building on the county’s highest ridges. The ordinance has a sunset clause of six months, meaning that it will expire automatically six months after the enactment date of Nov. 6.

The company has repeatedly said it is going through the expensive permitting process for a new reactor without a commitment to building it because it wants to keep alive its option to build the reactor. The cost of permitting, though in the millions, is only a fraction of what a mistaken decision to build the plant could cost, company officials say. The proposed plant would supply Virginia consumers rather than the competitive market, the utility says. No baseload power plants -- those designed to run continuously to feed the power grid -- have been built in the state since the mid-1990s, Grecheck said.

If you closed your eyes, you could almost hear the groan of the bureaucratic wheel slowly grinding. Monday marked the opening of the State Corporation Commission’s hearing on Highland New Wind Development’s proposal to construct the state’s first industrial wind facility on Allegheny Mountain in Highland County. If the first day’s proceedings are any indication, the process will take much longer than the three days scheduled.

The State Corporation Commission is getting an earful from folks across the state about a proposed wind farm in Highland County. Mac McBride's company, Highland New Wind Developments, wants to build more than a dozen windmills on two ridges in the county.