Vinalhaven overwhelmingly supports (island's) revisions to wind power rules (Maine)

[jpak]

http://www.workingwaterfront.com/online-exclusives/Vinalhaven-overwhelmingly-supports-revisions-to-wind-power-rules/12876/

Changes to the rules governing wind power sites were overwhelmingly approved at a Vinalhaven Special Town Meeting held on December 15.

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Fox Island Wind is proposing to build three, 1.5-megawatt wind turbines on Vinalhaven that could provide virtually all the electricity needed for both Vinalhaven and North Haven, the two islands served by the electric co-op.

When Vinalhaven adopted its wind power ordinance in March 2007 there were no state guidelines and no pending projects for the island. "We never really thought that the co-op was going to develop a project, we didn't even have that in mind when it was adopted," said Stratton. "We want to keep all property owners in mind and try to protect everybody," said Stratton.

Under the new ordinance a large wind power facility is defined as having more than four turbines and a medium facility would have two, three or four turbines, or one turbine, if it has the capacity to generate at least .1 megawatts (or 100 kilowatts) of electricity. A small facility is defined as having one turbine that has the capacity to generate less than 100 kilowatts of electricity.

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