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"We are waiting," Rapaport said. "We are, as I think most developers are, very interested to see if they can get a signal from the (Public Service) board how easy or difficult it would be to develop wind in Vermont."
"We are waiting," Rapaport said. "We are, as I think most developers are, very interested to see if they can get a signal from the (Public Service) board how easy or difficult it would be to develop wind in Vermont."
MONTPELIER – The growing obstacles to siting a wind project in Vermont have forced a wind developer to scale back plans and sit on the sidelines until the future for such projects is clearer in the state.
Dave Rapaport, vice president of the Montpelier-based East Haven Windfarm project, said the company has sold off its wind development rights to hundreds of acres in East Haven and changed the company name to Northeast Kingdom Wind. And he said after all the trouble he and company president Mathew Rubin have had getting permission to build a four-turbine project in the remote Northeast Kingdom town, a project he's still hoping to build, he's not sure whether to try and develop wind in Vermont in other locations.
"We are waiting," Rapaport …
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MONTPELIER – The growing obstacles to siting a wind project in Vermont have forced a wind developer to scale back plans and sit on the sidelines until the future for such projects is clearer in the state.
Dave Rapaport, vice president of the Montpelier-based East Haven Windfarm project, said the company has sold off its wind development rights to hundreds of acres in East Haven and changed the company name to Northeast Kingdom Wind. And he said after all the trouble he and company president Mathew Rubin have had getting permission to build a four-turbine project in the remote Northeast Kingdom town, a project he's still hoping to build, he's not sure whether to try and develop wind in Vermont in other locations.
"We are waiting," Rapaport said. "We are, as I think most developers are, very interested to see if they can get a signal from the (Public Service) board how easy or difficult it would be to develop wind in Vermont."
Public Service Board hearing officer Kurt Janson in March recommended the board reject the company's plan for four 329-foot-tall wind turbines on a former radar base on East Mountain in East Haven, a small town of 301 residents located between Lyndonville and Island Pond. Janson said the project would have been located amid thousands of conserved acres in the former Champion Lands and that it was the "right" project in the "wrong" place.
The board has the final say in the utility permit process. East Haven Windfarm has urged the board to overturn the decision, and the board agreed to hear arguments against the recommendation and to visit the site in late June, Rapaport said.
Until then, Rapaport and Rubin are putting on hold wind development plans for Ferdinand and Brighton, where, Rapaport said, a landowner came to them with thousands of acres of land in an area near the Seneca mountains just outside Island Pond.
Despite growing concerns about future energy needs and the benefits of alternative power, bringing wind to Vermont has been harder than he and Rubin thought it would be, he said.
"In 2001, there was emerging a real awareness of the need for renewable energy and reducing our dependency … on out-of-state energy sources," he said.
When he and Rubin began to develop the East Mountain project about five years ago, Green Mountain Power's Searsburg wind farm in southern Vermont had been up and running for about four years and had gained community support that grew.
But the company unexpectedly faced fierce criticism from Northeast Kingdom opposition groups including nearby Burke Mountain Academy. The academy is a member of Burke 2000, with new Burke Ski Area owner Ginn Co. Academy headmaster Kirk Dwyer had argued the wind farm would hurt the school's enrollment, thwart proposed condo development sales and endanger tourism.
The company diffused the situation in March by selling wind development rights for about 300 acres to Burke 2000. Now, neither the academy nor the ski area party can develop without the other parties' cooperation, Rapaport said. That sale is not expected to affect the proposed development of the four-turbine project.
"We decided it would be much better to work in cooperation with Ginn and with Burke than to be at cross purposes," Rapaport explained. "We own the property and they own the rights to own the wind project."
The East Haven Windfarm also recently brought in new investors when it changed its name, but Rapaport would not reveal who the investors are.
The wind company has plans already approved by the Public Service Board to erect a couple of 200-foot tall anemometer test towers in Ferdinand and Brighton. But at about $100,000 each, Rapaport said, the company is waiting for the PSB's decision before laying out cash. The Brighton proposal has its supporters and detractors as well.
According to the Public Service Board Web site, Rapaport's company filed for permission in December 2004 to put up lattice-type test towers on East Haven Mountain and in Ferdinand and Brighton. But in a pre-hearing conference in March 2005, several parties indicated they would challenge it. The PSB sided with Rapaport's company and granted permission to erect the towers.
The subject has generated little interest among Island Pond residents, said Brighton Municipal Assistant Joel Cope Monday. A PSB public hearing on the test towers last summer attracted about 25 people, many from the same family who wanted the test towers the be built on their land and many who came were from out of town.
But Cope is not among the supporters, he said. "This is a significant issue. I say wind measurement towers have absolutely no benefit to the residents of the state."
Selectmen have not taken a stance, Cope said, adding his opinion does not speak for the town.
The proposed project would be visible from Island Pond. Rapaport described the project as bigger than four turbines, but he could not say how big it would be until measurements are taken.
And whether it ever comes to fruition remains to be seen.
"We're just waiting and watching and we have not reached (a decision)," Rapaport said.