GENEVA - When high school and college students think about camping over summer vacation, they're usually not envisioning what Aeron Hurley recently did.

Hurley, who is entering his senior year at Hobart College, camped out under some wind power turbines to get data for an independent research project he's conducting.

Setting out to answer whether wind power is feasible for New York state, Hurley visited two wind farms and the proposed location for a third. He also sat in on a number of town meetings to hear residents debate the hot issue.

His conclusion: Yep, wind power is a viable option. But some sites are better suited for the turbines than others.

"Find the best areas around New York state and put turbines there, but don't overdo it because you'll make a lot of people mad," said Hurley, 21, of Windham, Maine.

Although he admits he's an advocate of wind power, Hurley said he believes his assessment is fair and

unbiased.

"You can see in my research that I'm for it, but I talked to a wide range of people and looked at it as objectively as I could," he said.

Basing his research on three criteria - potential wind energy, environmental impact and whether a community was conducive to wind harvesting - Hurley traveled to wind farm sites at Tug Hill, near Lowville, in Lewis County, and Fenner in Madison County. He also surveyed a proposed site in Cohocton, Steuben County. His research spanned roughly eight weeks, wrapping up in late July.

The Tug Hill and Fenner projects were ideal, he said, because both sites got plenty of unobstructed wind, were built on unused farmland and were far enough from towns to be unobtrusive.

Construction of the Maple Ridge Wind Farm at Tug Hill started in May 2005 and its 140 turbines, so far, produce about 231 megawatts of power. When completed in October, the facility will house 195 turbines and produce 321 megawatts of power, enough for 98,000 homes, said Operations Manager Scott Alexander.

Tug Hill is owned jointly by PPM Energy and Horizon Wind Energy.

The Fenner Windpower Project went online in 2001 and has 20 turbines making 30 megawatts of power, enough for 7,000 homes. It is owned by Canastota Windpower LLC, a subsidiary of Enel North America Inc.

The 280 turbines around New York state produce about 62 billion kilowatt hours of electricity a year, according to New York State Wind Energy Projects.

Hurley said that wind turbine opponents frequently complain that they emit low, persistent thumping noises that can drive residents crazy, so he decided to find out for himself, by sleeping within a few hundred feet of the turbines at each site.

"I slept pretty well, there was a swishing sound, but I didn't hear any thumping," Hurley said, noting that he did hear from people that the vibrations can cause a home's foundation and insulation to shake.

Through a series of random interviews, Hurley found that the farms had the overwhelming support of nearby residents, and farmers especially praised the arrangement.

"The farms are kind of going downhill, and the turbines provide income for the farmers," he said, noting that wind companies lease the land where the turbines are built and pay rent to the farmers who own it.

Hurley gave the proposed Cohocton site a thumbs down. While the area gets a decent amount of wind, the site is heavily wooded and the impact on the environment would be too great, he said. The Cohocton plan calls for 40 turbines that would stand nearly 500 feet tall, Hurley said, and he didn't think they would be a good idea for the town.

Indeed, he saw strong opposition in the form of the Cohocton Wind Watch. At town meetings, members said they were concerned about how turbines would affect property values and change the town's landscape.

Wind farms have a tendency to industrialize areas where they're built, Hurley said, and that scares some people.

"There were some people who moved there from the city and talked about how they wanted to get away from noise and traffic," he said.

Others cited environmental concerns, including danger to birds.

Large wind turbines move slowly and are less likely to kill birds than the smaller models in California, he said.

As for property values, the Environmental Advocates of New York recently released a study that showed turbines did nothing to affect values near the Fenner site.

Locally, Hurley said that the Geneva area doesn't fit his criteria for ideal wind farm placement. More conducive environments exist in southern Seneca County, Hurley said.

Hurley was originally a pre-med major at Hobart but then took a few environmental science classes from professors Thomas Drennen and John Halfman, which sparked his interest in renewable energy, he said.

Drennen was an adviser during his research, buying his sound-monitoring equipment and answering questions, but Hurley acted independently.

Drennen said he's proud of Hurley's initiative and plans to use his data in upcoming seminars on wind power.

"I was impressed that he didn't say all wind power is good or all wind power is bad," he said.

Hurley condensed his research into a poster that will hang in the Finger Lakes Institute, Drennen said. He also plans to develop his study further and submit it as an honors project before he graduates in 2007.

As for the future, Hurley hopes to stay in the field of wind power, perhaps working as an adviser for a wind energy company.

"I think a lot of people are pro-wind," he said. "You just have to make sure that you just don't put turbines where they don't belong."

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mmaslanik@fltimes.com