The state Site Evaluation Committee said Thursday night it will review a controversial wind farm proposed for 25 acres on Lempster Mountain. The decision came Thursday night after a hearing in Concord, where members also rejected the developer’s request for a speedy review.

But in the second of our two-part series looking at wind power in the Granite State, we shift to the southwestern part of the state, to Lempster. There a large 24 megawatt wind farm has been proposed for Lempster Mountain. But, unlike in Berlin, this proposal has sparked a great deal of controversy.

In the first of a two day series, NHPR Correspondent Hilary McQuilkin is going to take us to the state's first commercial windfarm....in Berlin.

....the lack of zoning is what prompted the town to request a state review.

CONCORD – A hearing to decide whether the state should review a proposed Lempster wind farm has been continued until July 6.

The committee tonight will consider whether to review the project, a first step in a process that could take up to a year or more. Lempster has no zoning and there are concerns that the small town lacks the resources to regulate an energy project.

CONCORD – This week, the state Site Evaluation Committee will meet to decide whether it should launch an official review of a proposed wind farm in Lempster.

PORTSMOUTH - A proposal to capture electricity from tidal energy in the Piscataqua River has been filed with federal energy officials and calls for 50 to 100 underwater turbines to be submerged throughout Rockingham and Strafford County stretches of the river and up into York County.

LEMPSTER, N.H. --When Kevin and Debra Onnela moved to their 1,500-acre mountaintop spread 27 years ago, a homemade windmill provided all the electricity they needed -- and more.

The state announced late last week that it would review the project because residents and town officials petitioned the state to step in.

Maine's largest energy provider is forecasting record-breaking electricity use this summer, as well as a need for additional supply lines to feed an ever-increasing demand. But a solution planned by ISO New England -- which manages electricity distribution in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont -- is being met with skepticism by Maine officials, who question the proposal's need and fairness.

Lee also warned that renewable energy sources, though desirable, were not a "silver bullet" solution. "It does leave an environmental footprint," Lee said, noting that wind energy and solar energy take up large areas of land, making it difficult to find a place to put them, especially in densely populated parts of the world.

LEMPSTER — A number of local taxpayers who signed a petition last month asking the state to review a windmill project proposed for Lempster Mountain have asked to have their names stricken.

WASHINGTON — Electricity rates threaten to follow the path of gas prices: Up. ISO New England, the region's grid operator, is gaining support for a plan to raise electricity rates by $5 billion over four years, beginning in December. Rates would continue to rise at an undetermined click after that.

Lempster – Construction of the state’s first wind farm might be in jeopardy after residents and town officials requested the state step in.

If New England's nuclear energy plants had to be replaced by other non-emitting sources of electricity to meet the RGGI goals, the region would be looking at large-scale wind projects, with weather-dependent output, spread over some 650,000 acres of land or water at a cost of more than $10 billion.

LEMPSTER, N.H. The state is deciding whether it should review plans for a wind farm in Lempster (New Hampshire) after requests from town officials and residents.

GROTON — Community Energy is hoping to bring renewable wind energy to the region, but concerns by some may put a halt to the plans.

LEMPSTER — The House will consider legislation today establishing a committee to study the effects of wind farms, a vote that could shape the future of wind energy in New Hampshire.

The company behind a proposal to build 12 windmills atop Lempster Mountain has called for a change in the way the state deals with smaller, ³green energy² sources like electricity-generating windmills.