News
Granite Reliable Power submitted an application to the committee 11 months ago that called for turbines on peaks in Millsfield and Dixville and a substation in Dummer. The wind farm would connect to a transmission line known as the Coos County loop and produce 99 megawatts of electricity, making it the largest in the state.
A statement from the company, which is a subsidiary of Noble Environmental Power, applauded the committee for "conducting a thorough and open review of the project."
General Manager Pip Decker has said the company could begin clearing this fall in preparation for heavy construction next year.
Though the committee's decision clears a major hurdle for the company, the $257 million project still needs approval from the federal Army Corps of Engineers; the Federal Aviation Administration, which looks for hazards to planes; and ISO New England, which controls the regional electricity grid.
Much of the committee's deliberations over the past two months have concerned the project's environmental effect.
The Fish and Game Department and the Appalachian Mountain Club originally contested the project because they were concerned about the impact on sensitive high-elevation forests. The peaks of Dixville and Mount Kelsey, which are included in the project area, are home to threatened species, including the American marten and the three-toed woodpecker, and to the Bicknell's thrush, a state species of concern.
Granite Reliable came to a settlement with those groups that required the company to give the state 1,735 acres of protected high-elevation forest, $750,000 to conserve more property in the North Country, and $200,000 to study rare and threatened species in the area.
That was critical, said Public Utilities Commission Chairman Thomas Getz, who oversaw proceedings. Without it, he said, the project likely would have been determined to have an unreasonable adverse effect on the natural environment, which could have been cause for rejecting it.
The committee also declined proposals from various parties to the case requiring Granite Reliable to pay for the construction of a visitors center in Errol, to promote ecotourism in the area, or to install the turbines via helicopter to minimize disturbance of the forest.
It approved conditions that the company provide assurances before construction that it will pay for decommissioning of the site and have money set aside for that purpose within 10 years of construction.
William Janelle, assistant director of the Department of Transportation, said there is a "relative scale of benefits," meaning more turbines means more clean power for the state.
The committee must issue its written order by June 30.
| < prev | next > |