December 26, 2005
Harvesting wind | Christian Herter receives permits to test the feasibility of an Aroostook County wind farm
By Whit Richardson
Most people look at the agricultural fields of Aroostook County and only think of potatoes. Not Christian Herter; he looks at those open fields and envisions 300-foot-tall windmills sprouting among the spuds. "It's the only area that I know of in all of New England that has enough contiguous land to do a [wind] project of regional significance," Herter says.
Herter is president of Freeport-based Linekin Bay Energy Co., which, following a November approval from the state's Land Use Regulation Commission, has installed its sixth and final meteorological test tower in the St. John River Valley. With test towers already up and collecting wind data in Frenchville, St. Agatha, Grand Isle, Hamlin and Cyr Plantation, Herter hopes to substantiate what he and partner Horizon Wind Energy of Houston, Tex., already believe is true: That the wind sweeping across the potato fields of Aroostook County is strong enough to make a 250-turbine, 500-megawatt wind farm economically viable.
So far, Herter's belief is supported by mostly anecdotal evidence collected while traveling around the County. But that was enough to convince him to launch the $500 million project, which could generate enough electricity to power roughly 250,000 homes. "The wind, we think, is great," Herter says.
Herter, who used to head the Natural Resources Council of Maine, entered the renewable energy business in the early 1980s when he co-founded Swift River Co., which developed several small-scale hydroelectric plants around the state. In the early 1990s, Herter signed on as project director for a proposed 210-megawatt wind farm in the Boundary Mountains north of Eustis. That project fell apart when his partner, San Francisco-based Kenetech Windpower, went belly up in 1996.
He spent the next several years working on various projects in the energy industry before starting the Linekin Bay project a year and a half ago. Compared to wind farms currently proposed for Maine's western mountains or off the coast of Cape Cod, Herter believes Aroostook County offers a better chance for success because turbine development is compatible with current agricultural land use. And while the wind passing over an open field is not as strong as that on a ridgeline or coastal plain, he says technology has accelerated so rapidly that it has opened up new areas for wind farm projects.
Another reason Herter is optimistic about his northern Maine location is that the project could provide a much-needed economic boost to the region. The proposed investment would quintuple the tax base of towns such as Hamlin, where Herter estimates he and his partners will invest $100 million, and individual farmers would benefit, too. "A farmer is giving up less than an acre of land for every turbine and getting paid considerably more" than the revenues generated from potatoes or another crop, Herter says. (He won't disclose the expected annual lease rates, but says they are "in the thousands of dollars.")
Still, Herter admits that plenty of logistical challenges lay ahead, including how to transport 110-foot long blades that weigh nine tons each over winding roads in northern Maine. The project also needs a host of permits, such as a site location permit from the Department of Environmental Protection. So over the next year, Herter will sign up interested landowners, conduct the necessary environmental impact studies and, he hopes, apply for the proper permits. If all goes well, the first phase of the project could be generating power by 2008.
For now, though, Herter is primarily concerned with those test towers, and keeping track of the data they collect. "We think we've found the right place and we hope we have enough wind," he says, "but [the towers] need to substantiate it."
Herter is president of Freeport-based Linekin Bay Energy Co., which, following a November approval from the state's Land Use Regulation Commission, has installed its sixth and final meteorological test tower in the St. John River Valley. With test towers already up and collecting wind data in Frenchville, St. Agatha, Grand Isle, Hamlin and Cyr Plantation, Herter hopes to substantiate what he and partner Horizon Wind Energy of Houston, Tex., already believe is true: That the wind sweeping across the potato fields of Aroostook County is strong enough to make a 250-turbine, 500-megawatt wind farm economically viable.
So far, Herter's belief is supported by mostly anecdotal evidence collected while traveling around the County. But that was enough to convince him to launch the $500 million project, which could generate enough electricity to power roughly 250,000 homes. "The wind, we think, is great," Herter says.
Herter, who used to head the Natural Resources Council of Maine, entered the renewable energy business in the early 1980s when he co-founded Swift River Co., which developed several small-scale hydroelectric plants around the state. In the early 1990s, Herter signed on as project director for a proposed 210-megawatt wind farm in the Boundary Mountains north of Eustis. That project fell apart when his partner, San Francisco-based Kenetech Windpower, went belly up in 1996.
He spent the next several years working on various projects in the energy industry before starting the Linekin Bay project a year and a half ago. Compared to wind farms currently proposed for Maine's western mountains or off the coast of Cape Cod, Herter believes Aroostook County offers a better chance for success because turbine development is compatible with current agricultural land use. And while the wind passing over an open field is not as strong as that on a ridgeline or coastal plain, he says technology has accelerated so rapidly that it has opened up new areas for wind farm projects.
Another reason Herter is optimistic about his northern Maine location is that the project could provide a much-needed economic boost to the region. The proposed investment would quintuple the tax base of towns such as Hamlin, where Herter estimates he and his partners will invest $100 million, and individual farmers would benefit, too. "A farmer is giving up less than an acre of land for every turbine and getting paid considerably more" than the revenues generated from potatoes or another crop, Herter says. (He won't disclose the expected annual lease rates, but says they are "in the thousands of dollars.")
Still, Herter admits that plenty of logistical challenges lay ahead, including how to transport 110-foot long blades that weigh nine tons each over winding roads in northern Maine. The project also needs a host of permits, such as a site location permit from the Department of Environmental Protection. So over the next year, Herter will sign up interested landowners, conduct the necessary environmental impact studies and, he hopes, apply for the proper permits. If all goes well, the first phase of the project could be generating power by 2008.
For now, though, Herter is primarily concerned with those test towers, and keeping track of the data they collect. "We think we've found the right place and we hope we have enough wind," he says, "but [the towers] need to substantiate it."
Most Recent
Most Recent
Comments