Wind project hearing Sept. 23
Toolbox
Published: August 31, 2010
As any regular reader of this paper knows, there has been a lot of information presented by those who are in favor of the Kingdom Community Wind project and those who are opposed. And rarely have they all agreed.
The Vermont Public Service Board has established a schedule for regulatory review of the wind project, including a public hearing at the Lowell Graded School on Sept. 23. The regulatory proceeding is a place where it is a little easier to determine what is accurate and what is not. Testimony will be submitted under oath, and witnesses will be subject to cross-examination by other participants. And the Public Service Board will make its decision based on all the facts that will have been fully vetted.
Green Mountain Power welcomes this close inspection of the project we are proposing. We anticipate that the record will make it clear that Kingdom Community Wind will bring economic benefit to the local communities and to customers of GMP and VEC. It will generate locally enough clean, renewable electricity to serve more than 20,000 Vermont homes.
We have learned a lot from our experience over the past 13 years of owning and operating the only wind plant in Vermont. This six megawatt wind plant located in Searsburg produces about 11 million kilowatt-hours every year, enough to supply 1,500 of our customers’ homes. This is electricity we don’t need to buy from other sources. We also know that technology has improved greatly since we built Searsburg Wind, so we can expect even better operational performance from Kingdom Community Wind.
We appreciate all the effort people in the region have made to understand the Kingdom Community Wind project. There is a lot to learn and we understand that there will be a variety of opinions. We believe that public engagement based on good factual information is healthy for communities and we are happy to meet with any group or individual that has questions about the project. To learn more visit www.kingdomcommunitywind.com or call me at 655-8418.
Dorothy Schnure
Manager, Corporate Communications
Green Mountain Power
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