Wind energy for Coos? Why not Belknap?
A Connecticut company testing for wind power potential and impacts on the 24,000-acre Phillips Brook property in Coos County said it is looking at developing a 100-megawatt windpark by 2009. The 33 to 67 turbines -- each about 400 feet high -- would be spaced just over 1,000 feet apart.
Meanwhile Tillotson Corporation, owners of The Balsams Grand Resort in Dixville Notch, is looking at a smaller field of wind turbines to the north of Phillips Brook on its North Sanguinary Ridge, said Richard Harris, spokesman.
The article further reports that thus far there is no opposition to the project. If built in the range as proposed, the electricity generated will supply power to 16,500 homes with 33 turbines and as many as 33,500 if 67 are erected.
I still think Belknap County should be looking into wind power of our own. We have the mountains. We have the wind. We have the need. The question is, do we have the foresight?
