7 Comments

1. 
   fitchplate | Mar 17, 2014 09:14am | #1

   Independent energy
   Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly, small towns --- with a habitual dependence on the grid, at the mercy of regulatory agencies, price fixing, geopolitics and big business energy suppliers --- are missing the opportunity to have independent and secure energy sources. Danbury has <1200 population.

   http://www.nhes.nh.gov/elmi/products/cp/profiles-htm/danbury.htm

   I understand completely when they don’t want outside-owned installations, but if they have the sun and wind, why not scale down and do in yourself? Even commercial scale ground source heat pumps.

   New Hampshire seems to be lagging behind its neighbours. The New England states can be compared here:

   http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/newengland/astate_template.asp?stateab=nh

   Green house gases and climate change are also a health and well being concern. Danbury could scale that project down significantly, with smaller generators, fewer of them, lower capital cost, less environmental aggravation and do themselves a favor:

   http://www.mass.gov/eea/energy-utilities-clean-tech/renewable-energy/wind/wind-energy-facts.html#c
   How many homes can a wind turbine power?

   A single 1 MW turbine on land can provide enough electricity to power 225 to 300 households. A single 1 MW turbine in an offshore wind farm, where the wind blows harder and more consistently, can power more than 400 households.

   How much carbon dioxide does a wind energy turbine offset?

   1 MW of wind energy can offset approximately 2,600 tons.

2. 
   fitchplate | Mar 17, 2014 09:26am | #2

   proves the point
   Look at this other GBA news story, today ... its the same company screwing the people in Maine ... and so making a case for localized independent enregy production. Maine Central is owned by the same company that Danbury rejected (Iberdrola USA, a Spanish-owned holding company):

   https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/green-building-news/maine-utility-seeks-surcharge-renewables

   Maine Utility Seeks Surcharge for Renewables

   Central Maine Power asks regulators for permission to impose a ‘standby charge’ for customers who generate some of their own power

   Grid-tied small scale producers are going to find the PUC's favoring the grid owners; allowing them to add progressively greater surcharges and capital cost requirements in all jurisdictions.

3. GBA Editor
   Martin Holladay | Mar 17, 2014 09:36am | #3

   Wind power in rural areas
   In Sheffield, Vermont (population 703), taxes from the local wind farm provide the small community with $500,000 a year -- enough to offset the community's entire non-school municipal budget, while still putting away half of the windfall into a long-term "rainy day" fund for the town's future needs.

   The facility is also producing enough electricity on an annual basis to supply the electrical needs of every house in Caledonia County.

4. 
   ricoball | Mar 17, 2014 10:01pm | #4

   N.H. Town Blocks Big Wind
   New Hampshire has a statute in place, RSA 162-H ENERGY FACILITY EVALUATION, SITING, CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATION, that will preempt local regulation of big wind energy facilities. The "Community Right" votes taken in a number of towns that attempt to exert local authority have no basis in state law. NH is not a home rule state; municipalities have only those powers delegated to them by the legislature. A number of towns attempted to pass similar ordinances that would have regulated large groundwater withdrawals and were unsuccessful.

   It's not that I don't agree with these efforts to exert some local control, the enabling legislation needs to be changed that would grant towns more authority.

   http://www.laconiadailysun.com/index.php/opinion/letters/75987-michelle-sanborn-3-17-336

5. 
   davidmeiland | Mar 17, 2014 10:28pm | #5

   So...
   ... what type of power generation are they in favor of? Anything that happens not in their back yard?

6. 
   ricoball | Mar 18, 2014 08:34pm | #6

   Re: So...
   Great questions - I'm not sure that there's a clear answer. Many of the same towns in NH also oppose Northern Pass, a powerline bringing power from HydroQuebec. Much of the anguish in these towns is the reality of a large corporation coming in and despoiling the natural beauty that is NH, and really having no say in the discussion.

7. 
   shtrum2 | Mar 20, 2014 01:23pm | #7

   RE: pick your poison
   Am all for communities maintaining their character, restraining uncontrolled growth and fighting bad developers. However, I wonder whether this is as much about any of those issues as the (sensationalistic) fears that wind farms are health risks, noisy and tied to some political agenda. In central Ohio, we have several rural areas trying to woo corporations with farmland now rezoned for future corporate parks and manufacturing. Some townships have had no problem with allowing strip malls and restaurant chains within walking distance of prehistoric Indian mounds and buildings on the National Historic Register. Given a choice, I'd much rather have fields of sleek wind mills over a landscape littered with asphalt, Mattress Outlets and Olive Gardens.