Camden officials OK wind project feasibility study
11/21/09 | 8 comments

Camden officials OK wind project feasibility study


By Abigail Curtis
BDN Staff

CAMDEN, Maine — Saying that they are paying close attention to Vinalhaven’s community wind project, town officials this week agreed to a preliminary feasibility study for a wind project atop Ragged Mountain.

While no project is now in the pipeline, anemometers placed on the mountain three years ago found that the town has “a serious wind resource,” said Jeff Lewis, chairman of the Camden Energy Committee.

“It’s a very energetic site,” Lewis said Friday. “But if there were going to be a wind power project in Camden, it would have to be a community project, where the people would directly benefit from the turbines. ... Everybody’s watching the Vinalhaven project with a lot of excitement. That community model is a really beautiful story.”

Select Board members voted unanimously Tuesday night to pay $5,000 to the Island Institute’s Maine Coast Community Wind Program for the feasibility study, although that is contingent upon approval from the town’s attorney.

“We’re kind of at a place where we need some more help to think about the options,” Lewis said.

The Maine Coast Community Wind Program is a partner in the Fox Islands Wind Project, which has placed three turbines on Vinalhaven to generate energy and help offset the islanders’ high electricity rates.

As is the case with other wind energy projects in the state, the Vinalhaven project is not without controversy. Neighbors have come forth to say that the noise generated by the turbines has been very problematic.

“There are pluses and minuses to anything like this,” said Deborah Dodge, co-chair of the Camden Select Board. “You don’t want to rush into anything. You have to be able to have enough time for everybody in the community to find out about this.”

The study the board green-lighted would analyze regulatory programs and look at options for an organization model for a wind project, according to Lewis and George Baker of the Maine Coast Community Wind Program.

“How do you do a community wind project without a community electric company?” Baker asked.

The study also could convene a “pretty serious” brainstorming session with state experts, including attorneys and politicians, and include discussions about what scale of project would be reasonable.

Dodge said the town would undertake any such project “very thoughtfully” and with deliberation.

“There are an awful lot of steps that have to happen before anything moves forward, but we all do know that Ragged Mountain has great potential,” she said.

The Camden Energy Committee is tasked with identifying potential local sources for alternative energy, among other things, and the sites they have hit upon in that quest include the Megunticook River as well as Ragged Mountain, which is home to the Camden Snow Bowl ski area.

After anemometers placed in 2006 and 2007 showed there was abundant wind, the committee members spoke with some developers to learn about what could be done. Possibilities range from doing nothing to putting a “very small” 100-kilowatt turbine on the ski slope to installing as many as seven turbines that “could light three towns,” Lewis said.

“But nobody’s thinking that’s reasonable,” he said. “It’s all just thinking at this point; and it’s completely reasonable to conclude we could decide not to go forward.”

He said that a wind project likely would be controversial, and that by no means is it certain the town would move forward with the project.

Any project ultimately would be put to a town vote, Lewis said.

That won’t be a slam-dunk for wind power proponents, according to Baker.

“If you thought Vinalhaven was iconic, try messing around with the Camden Hills,” he said.

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8 comments on this item
On 11/21/09 at 9:12 AM, jaygee wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

On Thursday night, the little town of Dixmont drew serious blood from the industrial wind industry by passing an ordinance that spells out some very basic do's and don'ts. Word has it that some very powerful people in Augusta are flabbergasted and don't know how they will explain this to their friends in the wind industry.

The following WABI article has a link to a pdf of the ordinance, which every town in every corner of Maine would be smart to adopt asap.

http://www.wabi.tv/news/8626/dixmont-to-vote-on-industrial-wind-energy-ordinance

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On 11/21/09 at 9:51 AM, Ourwatch wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

It should be required in every wind energy development that the negative scenic, noise, and flicker impacts be balanced my a mitigating contribution to the community public interest.

If natural skylines treasured by many in a region become festooned with white towers and moving blades, noise equivalent to the dull roar of interstate highways intrudes upon peaceful wildlands, and nearby occupants who purchased land for its views and privacy must tolerate visual elements that are unacceptable to them, then it is only right that some of the revenue be directed on an ongoing basis to purchasing public lands with value, conservation activities of value to the communities, contributions to education, and other mitigating activities within the affected communities and neighborhoods.

Somehow it is just not right, for example, that Harvard can get credit for green energy by purchasing the electricity that is generated from a major intrusion of windmills on the hilltops in natural wild lands of eastern Maine. Why are the structures not placed down there? At least in this case, a mitigating conservation contribution was made. What acceptable mitigation could possible be made for impacting the Camden Hills?

The requirement for balancing mitigation should be established in state statutes in the next legislature to be part of DEP and LURC permitting.

And in some places they are beautiful. And way better than air pollution. Offshore!

Peace - and healthcare to all. Happy Saturday

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On 11/21/09 at 2:28 PM, Patten_Pete wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Camden - please tune in to what citozens are doing to stop the hedge fund companies and others ram this wind scam down our throats, stuffing their wallets and ruining our Maine. See:

Citizens' Task Force on Wind Power - Maine

http://www.windtaskforce.org

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On 11/22/09 at 12:17 PM, deanhornblower wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

This is one of the most assinine ideas that the windturbine zombies have ever come up with! Its bad enough all the communications towers that have been built on Ragged Mt., but to put huge industrial turbines up there is an idea that shouldn't even see the light of day.

Camden's lifeblood is tourism. Camden Hills State Park is a gem. Destroying the viewshed of the state park, the lakes and hills outside the park, and the charm of Camden iself with these hideous machines that never, ever produced enough electricity to pay for themselves is truly the equivalent of the adage of "killing the goose that laid the golden egg".

Just downright stupidity, a loathesome characteristic of windturbines zombies.

By the way, inspite of the carefully orchestrated propaganda show on Vinalhaven, there are dozens of residents there who are upset with the impact of the turbines and believe they were lied to, which is typical of every community where this plague of wind turbines occurs. Stop this stupid idea in its tracks right now, Camden! Don't let the windturbine zombies gain control and ruin your beautiful region!

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On 11/22/09 at 2:02 PM, rockstars wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

In a stupid contest, I don't know which idea would win. Wind farm on Ragged Mt. or doing away with the railroads in ME. Whole towns dried up with that stupid decision.

The pro wind farm people say that tourism is about gone in ME ...so no problem putting wind farms everywhere. Since (1)they do not put out the energy that manufacturers claim(2) ME exports energy now (3) two biomass plants have been shut down through politics to make way for wind farms.

Maybe it is time to breathe and think.The only jobs wind farms are good for locally are construction. That is short term. The two power plants shut down through politics were bio mass. They gave woodsmen jobs.

Gov Baldci recently became very upset when he found out that western US wind farms were going to sell energy to the east. They were getting everything up and running faster. Then more upset when he found out Canada was going to sell energy to the US much cheaper than ours. Does this sound like his concerns are to get away from foreign oil? Or make money for the wind farm corporations? Because after the frigging TIFs , the towns get mostly promises. Like all the high school graduates can go to college...instead of First Wind paying their fair share of taxes. Puh..leeze. Can we all say CON ARTISTS.

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On 11/22/09 at 4:49 PM, netcaster wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

We in Dixmont just spent over a year trying to get people to see what large wind turbines were: not healthy to populace, not good for birds and wild life, not energy efficient,not an electric deal for the town, not a tax deal, not pretty to look at and the company was less than forth coming on real facts. The only positive we could find was that it seemed to attract stimulus $ for the companies partners. That is your taxes which, when gone, are needed again to be raised from you! If you think that they(turbines) will not effect tourism you are not thinking. Some of that tax money is going (report in a trusted news paper) to China where your tax money will build factories to produce more towers that American towns they hope will be talked into buying back. No jobs here! The beautiful town of Camden may hear promises on tax breaks, benefits to schools, free electricity etc but before you agree to putting them up REALLY look into what these companies do when your OK is signed. The latest company that tried to convince us to put them up started by telling us that they had no connection with Joe Kennedy or CMP in their formal letter to all in the town! My husband and I were in the position as intervenors to know that they were connected to CMP's upgrade of the line. They are likely to be connected to Joe Kennedy, since he doesn't want them off the Cape, also since they are located in Newton Mass. For goodness sake don't blindly go into this with just their say so. Know that this is big business and recall what that might mean. Examine other evidence but theirs.

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On 11/22/09 at 5:16 PM, SaveMeMtns wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

People of Camden, please consider what you are doing. Don’t sell the iconic Jewel of the Midcoast down the river for this latest fad. Wind energy is a financial boondoogle. It does not: 1). reduce our dependency on foreign oil, 2). reduce CO2 emissions 3) produce good green jobs or 4). make us greener, better people.

Consider what you have, and what you will lose. We did it, so can you. Educate yourselves and look beyond the symbolism and convenient platitudes. Save your town and your state. www.dixmontwind.org

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On 11/24/09 at 12:53 PM, zavier wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Camden folks.

Enjoy the Noise, Enjoy the spoiled views,Enjoy the detrimental health effects that are well documented if you are an abutter to the project. Enjoy the' Wind Mafia' lies concerning

the financial viability and benefits of Blowtoys to Camden, because there are NO Real benefits unless you are the primary investor who milk the federal treasury for themselves..

If you are so dumb as to permit them, you deserve them.

Ordinance up, or get screwed up, your choice!

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