Hilltowns ponder energy
The answer is blowin’ in the wind



HILLTOWNS — In the last month two halls have filled with people curious about wind.

A crowd sat in thick dank summer heat in Rensselaerville’s Conkling Hall to hear about farmer-owned wind projects; a smaller group came to the last Knox Town Board meeting to hear about a community-owned wind project.

Like residents in the Hilltowns, most town governments are cautiously interested in the idea of generating their own electricity.
"I like the idea of wind power; we definitely have wind," Berne Supervisor Kevin Crosier told The Enterprise. When planning for large wind farms, Crosier said, "The devil is in the details with that stuff."

New York Farmer’s Wind Power

Standing at the front of Conkling Hall, Harvey Wasserman presented his company’s take on the corporatization of the wind industry and its plan for farmer-owned wind farms.
"There will be large-scale utility wind power in this area in the next 10 years," he declared, going on to say that the question is: Who will own them"

New York Farmer’s Wind Power, LLC was founded by Wasserman; Davis Weiss, who lives in Rensselaerville; and Daniel Juhl, who owns a wind farm in Woodstock, Minn.

There are eight major wind developers in the United States, Weiss told The Enterprise, among them are General Electric and Goldman Sachs. These companies will pay farmers $3,000 to $7,000 per turbine per year to house their windmills, Wasserman said. Weiss estimated that, if the turbines were locally owned, they could bring in a million dollars for the town each year.

The business model that they suggest is similar to what Juhl did to finance his wind farm, which is called a flip arrangement. A farmer would find a financier, who would buy the windmills and own 99 percent of them for the first 10 years. After 10 years, the farmer would own 99 percent of them and the financier only one percent.

In Juhl’s case, his backers owned 90 percent of the wind farm for 10 years, said Wasserman, so Juhl was making $10,000 to $20,000 per machine per year. When the ownership flips, he’ll be making $100,000 per machine per year, said Wasserman. Comparable amounts are possible here, he said.
"The landowner doesn’t put up anything," said Weiss. "He’s making a fortune for the first 10 years, then he owns it."
Companies are interested in financing projects like this because they can use the Production Tax Credits that come with the project. PTCs are a federal incentive for corporations that build green power facilities, like wind farms. Weiss said that companies are lining up to invest. They want the tax credits, and businesses like John Deere benefit twofold. "It’s a win-win for them if they can keep farmers in business," said Weiss.
Maintaining the rural landscape is one of the benefits of wind farms in the Hilltowns, said Weiss. "Farming is no longer profitable," he said. "All these farms will be subdivided."

If a farmer can make money on the windmills, then the land can remain agricultural instead of being sold off into residential parcels, said Weiss. Windmills have a very small footprint; a farmer can plant right up to the base of the tower.
When talking about farmers who have windmills on their property, Wasserman said, "These guys in the Midwest are making more money on the wind than on corn and soybeans."

In the Northeast, it would be a little different because the size of farms is much smaller. On average, each turbine needs 15 acres, said Weiss. Farmers would likely need to form a collective before making plans for the wind farm.
Citing the Tech Valley initiative, Weiss said that wind farms would help relieve some of the development pressure on the Hilltowns, preserving farmland and open spaces. He said, "The number-one thing has to be conservation."

Detractors, though, say that windmills clutter the landscape. This is one of the main concerns being discussed by towns that are coming up with regulations for windmills, like Rensselaerville and Knox. Rensselaerville’s supervisor, Jost Nicholsberg, who is strongly opposed to windmills, suggested that people look into other forms of alternative energy, like fuel cells. He told The Enterprise, "Windmills are as toxic to the spirit and the soul as spent nuclear fuel rods."
"I consider them sort of Danish modern sculpture," said Wasserman, representing the other side of the debate.

Helderberg Wind Forum

The Knox Town Board last week heard a presentation on a research project for a community-owned wind farm in the Hilltowns.

The project, funded largely by a grant from the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority, will ultimately produce a business plan for a community-owned wind farm and accurate wind data for the area.

Although Knox recently enacted a moratorium on windmills and meteorological towers, Sustainable Energy Developments (SED) was granted a variance last night to put up the tower at 588 Middle Road in Knox. The tower will collect data for a year. Project manager Loren Pruskowski, of SED, hopes to get the tower up by September so that it will be able to collect information during the windy season, which starts in the fall.

The tower will collect information on wind turbulance, speed, and temperature at different heights. The environmental assessment will include information on noise, visual impact, and effects on bird and bat populations.

Of the eight species of bats that live in the area, two are protected. The Indiana bat is an endangered species and the small-footed bat is a species of special concern in New York, according to the Helderberg Escarpment Planning Guide. Daniel Driscoll, who is concerned about the bat population, said that proper placement of windmills would most likely avoid harming bats. Driscoll is a long-time member of the Knox Planning Board and a co-editor of the guide.

Wasserman addressed the bird and bat issue in his lecture, saying that the problem with birds was a peculiar circumstance in Altamont Pass, Calif., which has a large wind farm. There is a large raptor population in that area, he said, and wind turbines were put on lattice work towers, which give the birds a place to perch; tubular towers are used now.
"You won’t have nearly as many kills as the cats in the community," Wasserman said.