Unitil Corp., hasn't operated a power plant since the 1950s, but the electricity company would like to start again. Unitil has been one of the most vocal opponents of allowing utilities to build power plants, saying that would stunt the growth of a competitive market in New Hampshire and turn back the clock on important deregulation laws passed 10 years ago to break up electric monopolies. However, this week, it said building small, renewable power plants in its service territory could help protect customers against recent double-digit rate increases, without disrupting the competitive market. Renewable power is generated by harnessing local resources, such as wood, wind and solar energy.

BETHLEHEM, NH - Alternative energy facilities, such as the Pinetree Power plant that operates on Route 116, and has for the past 20 years, are watching House Bill 873 closely this legislative session. The bill will require power companies that sell directly to consumers to purchase power from renewable energy producers such as Pinetree, which turns wood chips into power, thereby stabilizing their future in the energy marketplace in New Hampshire, said Mark Driscoll, the Pinetree plant manager. The bill will also encourage other renewable energy producers such as those planning an energy park in the town of Northumberland, to move forward with their plans, said state legislators who are sponsoring the bill in Concord. And the bill promises to improve the environment and public health at the same time by encouraging more "green" power sources and making sure producers install the latest emissions controls.

Getting more money to preserve land, operate state parks, protect wildlife and regulate polluters top the 2007 environmental agenda of a broad coalition of groups. Legislative leaders embraced this first-ever collaborative effort the Granite State Conservation Voters Fund organized and promoted at a breakfast meeting of lawmakers Thursday. “I think great things are going to happen this year, and it’s great to feel like you’re in the mainstream,” said former state Sen. Rick Russman, a Kingston Republican who serves on the GSCVF board of directors.

Goshen officials are concerned about the power lines coming through their town from the proposed Lempster windmill project and have filed a petition with the New Hampshire Site Evaluation Committee for limited intervening status. “We’re trying to protect the appearance of the village,” Goshen planning board chairman John Wirkkala said Tuesday. Community Energy Inc. and Lempster Wind LLC, (collectively known as CEI) have proposed 12 electric generating windmills constructed on a 35-acre lot owned by resident Kevin Onella. If the windmills are constructed as planned, transmission lines will run along route 10 from Lempster through Goshen and into Newport where the electricity generated will tie into the power grid. “We’re asking for an alternative site for the lines or to bury the lines,” Wirkkala said.

A lot of regulatory issues had to be settled, including the decision by Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire that the switch to wood counted as a renewable energy project. This was vital because it allows the Northern Wood Project to earn Renewable Energy Certificates, or RECs. Those certificates can be bought and sold like shares, and are a major incentive for alternative energy projects, such as the proposed Lempster Wind Farm north of Keene. “We probably would not have proposed, nor won approval for this, unless the REC market existed,” said Martin Murray, PSNH spokesman.

A potential wind energy project is moving forward in the North Country with the approval of two temporary wind measurement towers.

AMHERST — Norm Hebert never thought the town would try to stop him from installing three wind turbines on his four acres. There is nothing in the town ordinances dealing with wind turbines, only silos and ham radio towers. So the 20-year resident began making preparations. He put down a deposit on three turbines with a Canadian manufacturer and cleared his land, a large corner lot in a densely settled subdivision near the Merrimack border. But when he applied for a building permit at town hall, Hebert was told that since there was no specific language in the town’s ordinance dealing with 90-foot tall wind turbines, he would have to get a variance. The town’s maximum height for accessory structures is 22 feet, and 35 feet for other structures, such as farm silos and radio towers.

A proposal for a wind-powered generating facility on the 23,781-acre Phillips Brook industrial forest is dashing immediate hopes of a $3.5 million permanent conservation easement on the parcel. Officials with the Society for the Protection of N.H. Forests confirmed that the easement - considered a keystone in a 180,000-acre forest between Milan and Dixville Notch in Coos County, and the state’s top priority for funding from the federal Forest Legacy Program for 2008 - is out for now.

The negative feedback project manager Jeff Keelen has heard about the possible Lempster wind mill farm is subjective, he said. Most of the major concerns he has faced involve the visual or noise effects the wind mill farm could create. “It’s hard to tell somebody that they should think the windmills are beautiful,” Keelen said. Citizens will have an opportunity to become better informed about the project at a public information hearing at 7 p.m. tonight at the Goshen-Lempster Cooperative School.

New England will need to add power plants capable of generating 4,300 megawatts, and $3.4 billion of additional transmission investment, by 2015 to avoid blackouts, the region’s grid operator says. The area will need 170 megawatts of new power before the summer of 2009 to assure adequate supplies, according to ISO New England Inc., the power grid and wholesale market operator that serves the region’s 14 million people........ If a 1,000 megawatt coal or nuclear power plant had been installed in 2005, buyers in the wholesale market would have saved $600 million in power costs, the report said.

Saying New England holds tremendous opportunity for wind energy development, Connecticut-based Noble Environmental Power today announced that it is teaming up with Vermont-based Vermont Environmental Research Associates (VERA) to explore potential windpark locations throughout the region.

The state will hold a public hearing Oct. 30 for a controversial wind farm proposed for 25 acres on Lempster Mountain. Last week, the state Site Evaluation Committee accepted Community Energy Inc.’s application as complete, part of the evaluation process for what could be the first major source of wind power in New Hampshire and one of the first new wind power sources in New England in more than decade. In July, the SEC unanimously voted to oversee the project after residents and town officials petitioned it to do so.

Under the agreement, ISO New England will project regional power needs three years in advance and hold annual auctions to buy power resources, including new and existing power plants. Incentives would encourage private operators to respond to power system emergencies, and operators that don't make extra capacity available would face penalties.

For wind developers, the Production Tax Credit (PTC) can either make or break a project. In Lempster, New Hampshire, the timely development of a 24-megawatt (MW) wind farm hinges on the probability of it coming online before December 31, 2007, when the PTC expires. Because a comprehensive review of the project was approved by the New Hampshire site evaluation committee, it could take Community Energy Inc. — the developer overseeing the Lempster wind farm — up to nine months to start construction. And if the PTC is not renewed before the expiration date, there’s a chance the project could stall for much longer.

After years of warning that New England's electric grid was on the brink of having to impose Third World-style rolling blackouts, top power officials now cautiously predict the region may have enough power for the near future. Since February, thanks to recent policy changes, proposals for 21 new power plants that could deliver enough electricity for about 3 million homes have come before regional power grid administrators. Those include a $1.5 billion NRG Energy Inc. plan for multiple new generators in Connecticut and a single generator that would burn methane gas from a dump in Westminster, near Fitchburg. The Holyoke -based organization that runs the six-state power grid and wholesale markets, Independent System Operator New England, plans to discuss the projects in a two-day Boston conference starting today .

Tuesday night, the Temple Select Board unanimously agreed to allow Rob and Vivian Nicholl a permit to install a 40-foot Skystream wind turbine on their property.

LEMPSTER (AP) -- The company proposing a controversial wind farm on Mount Lempster has taken the first step in the state's evaluation process. The developer, Community Energy Inc., has filed its application with the state Site Evaluation Committee, which voted unanimously to oversee the project at the request of residents and town officials.

The company proposing a controversial wind farm on Lempster Mountain has filed its application with the state Site Evaluation Committee. The action marks the first step in the evaluation process for what could be the first major source of wind power in New Hampshire and one of the first new wind power sources in New England in more than decade.

Aug. 15 (Bloomberg) -- New York, New Jersey and five other Northeast states set a goal of cutting power-plant carbon dioxide emissions by 10 percent over 10 years to help curb global warming.

More than 10 large and small wind-power facilities are on line in the region. More could be on their way. A proposed 24-megawatt project in Lempster, N.H., is under regulatory review. A 13.5-megawatt project in western Massachusetts' Berkshires is moving through the regulatory process.