How “green” are we, really?
News-Enterprise by Katy Odel
February 17, 2005
Development of solar, wind and hydropower is on the increase globally as society works on solutions to our energy needs that will reduce the need for fossil fuels in the 21st century and beyond.
According to the May-June 2004 issue of “Renewable Energy World”, the U.S. is second only to Germany in terms of the amount of energy it produces from wind, says the American Wind Energy Association. U.S. wind capacity has expanded at an average annual rate of 28 percent since 1999, the publication says.
North River company The Barton Group and a partner, Reunion Power LLP of Vermont and New Jersey, are jumping on the “renewable energy” bandwagon. They want to install up to 10 wind turbines to create a wind farm on Barton’s private property on the north side of Gore Mountain. Project sponsors say energy created potentially could provide power to more than half the homes in Warren County.
Barton already has one wind-monitoring device on a tower, installed with no public fanfare in late 2003, to test wind resources. The eight-inch, 65-meter tower rises from a small plateau in a portion of Barton property zoned “industrial”. The tower has a computer device which measures and collects wind data. From the site, one can look down and see the Saddle Lodge and some of the Gore Mountain ski trails.
Application to the APA for a second measuring tower on adjacent resource management zoned Barton property was denied when commissioners came to an impasse in a 5-5 vote late in 2004, with some citing visibility of the monitoring mast as an issue.
A public hearing could be held on the proposal, but it’s currently on hold, at Barton’s request, as the company and its partner continue to gather more information to present on its overall project.
Conceptually, the wind turbine project seems to be a sound one.
Tests have shown that the Barton property is one of the best wind sites in the Adirondacks, even the Northeast, for a wind farm. Another huge plus is that power lines and access roads already are in place, having been previously installed for what’s now a defunct garnet mining operation that’s been relocated to the company’s Ruby Mountain nearby.
More testing information is needed before Barton and partner can commit to formally proposing installation of the wind turbines, and the entire project is subject to APA review.
But if the Agency commissioners can’t even approve a monitoring device, how could they ever accept the entire project?
This is the dilemma of the decade for the APA and for all Adirondack residents.
What kind of environmental protection do we want in the Adirondacks? Are we so concerned with seeing a monitoring device from a distance that we would rather quash the wind turbine project than consider the long-term benefit of using its renewable energy to supply power needs to much of Warren County?
What an irony: Dozens of ski lift towers, numerous man-made trails, and a fire tower on Gore Mountain ski center lands, all adjacent to the Barton property, are deemed acceptable, but some see a second monitoring device that could help prove the wind turbine project viability as a blight on the landscape.
The Barton project concept appears to be in keeping with New York State’s energy policy, which includes directives for development of renewable energy, and, among other things, calls for reducing regulatory barriers that might hinder greater development of renewable energy resources in the state.
This may well be the “greenest” development proposal that has ever come before the Agency. Let’s hope our APA commissioners aren’t colorblind.
“The challenge for the project will be to blend these wind towers in with the historic, wild Adirondack landscape that New Yorkers rely upon for genuine wilderness experiences,” Bauer said.
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