The Timing on Windmills

Get ready to bone up fast on the proposed Spruce Ridge Wind Farm. Observers say the formal proposal is likely to come within the next couple of weeks. The four towns affected, including Orange, will have just 30 days to respond. I'll be sending information as I get it. (Many thanks to Judith Lindahl and Sandi Pierson!)

The Orange Planning Board will meet at 7PM Tuesday, December 16, to discuss the Spruce Ridge project. Before you go, you might want to get some facts under your belt.Here is a quick list of facts and links:

• The 15-25 proposed towers will be 200 feet higher than the ones in Rumney. Two of them are slated for Orange. Other estimates predict as many as 30 towers. The cost is at least $140 million, according to the Union Leader. It will generate at least 60 megawatts of power. Here's newspaper's story: 
• Volunteers are working to get the GPS coordinates for all the towers. I'll post the map as soon as it's done.
• The company behind the proposal, EDP Renewables, is based on Portugal. They have a cool website. The company's first core value is "Trust of shareholders, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders." Not sure local communities count as "stakeholders." Once built, the wind farm would be turned over to a management company.
• The application will be enormous. The one for the Wild Meadows wind project, submitted on December 13 of last year, totalled 4,000 pages. The supporting documents totalled far more pages. Volunteers in Alexandria and other towns split up the duties of reading everything. We'll need to do the same. Here's the Wild Meadows application.
• Who will the company apply to? The NH Site Evaluation Committee, or SEC. It's headed by Tom Burack, the state's commissioner of Environmental Services. Its purpose is "the review, approval, monitoring and enforcement of compliance in the planning, siting, construction and operation of energy facilities." Here's their site.
• Many citizens of neighboring towns wrote to the SEC about the Wild Meadows project. If you want to write to the committee yourself, here's the addres:

New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services 
Timothy W. Drew, Administrator 
Public Information and Permitting Unit 
PO Box 95
Concord, NH 03302-0095 

• Examples of letters written to the SEC are here.

The Orange Conservation Commission will be assisting the Planning Board in gathering information. I'll do all I can to keep you posted through this site. If you're a registered member, you'll automatically get emails with each post.

Meanwhile, if you want to comment, you can do so on this site or just email me (Jay), here or at webmaster@orangenh.us.

Update on Friday, December 5, 2014 at 11:49AM by OrangeNH

Correction: The proposal towers in Orange will be 101 feet higher than the Rumney towers: 500 feet tall, versus Rumney's 399.

Update on Friday, December 5, 2014 at 3:08PM by OrangeNH

We originally reported what the Union Leader reported: 2 turbines. The buzz around town proves to be true. Eight are planned for Orange. And the height of the turbines would be 499 feet, 100 feet taller than the Rumney turbines.