BERNE — Wind blows hard up on the Hill and the idea of harnessing it is catching on.

John Pratt is the first person to propose building a windmill in the town of Berne, although projects and discussions are underway in other Helderberg Hilltowns.

The Schenectady native moved to his 42-acre plot on Woodstock Road in February and started planning for the wind turbine immediately.
Pratt is committed to wind energy. He was an engineer for U.S. Wind Power, which was owned by Enron, and has since been sold to General Electric. The company was operating a commercial wind farm in Altamont Pass, California. Pratt estimated that the farm powered "a couple hundred thousand homes." He now works for BBL Construction Services in Albany.
"The key to wind power," said Pratt, "is having a location with wind and enough land." He’s got both — Pratt’s proposed site gets Class 3 winds, which are sufficient for producing energy, and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority requires five acres for a windmill, he said.

Since there is currently no zoning law concerning windmills in Berne, the only rules that he has to comply with come from NYSERDA, which will cover half the cost of the project.

Power companies are required to buy surplus energy at market value from residential producers, said Pratt.

The process
Pratt has had a building permit for the project since March 9 but has yet to start construction because he is awaiting approval from NYSERDA, he said. "I’ve been talking to NYSERDA since February," said Pratt. "Maybe even January." He said he’s become frustrated with the bureaucracy at the organization.
"They ought to be embarrassed of how they act with people," he said. "They don’t have a reasonable way for a residential person to go through their process."

Ray Hull, NYSERDA spokesman, told The Enterprise that most people go to the website, www.powernaturally.org, and contact one of the certified installers that is listed.
"Generally speaking," said Hull, "certified contractors are our eyes, ears, arms, and legs out in the community." He said that the installers go to the site and decide if a windmill is feasible for the area, they give a price quote that reflects NYSERDA’s incentives, and they handle the paper work that goes to the authority.
"We have been more than responsive to his inquiries," said Hull.

If Pratt were to finance the $80,000 project on his own, forgoing the 50/50 split with the state, he could start building immediately, without seeking approval. In order to share the cost with NYSERDA, though, he has had to go through several steps, he said.
"NYSERDA kicks it into a SEQR, which is a full environmental review," Pratt told The Enterprise on Monday. He then described the whole process, saying that, after submitting the State Environmental Quality Review, the proposal has to be submitted to and approved by the town’s planning board. Pratt said that the planning board has been very helpful.
"Berne has been great," he said.

At the June 14 town board meeting, the board voted unanimously to appoint the planning board as the lead agency in the environmental review for Pratt’s property, which is the next step after planning board approval in the NYSERDA process.
"The environmental board came out on Saturday," Pratt told The Enterprise on Monday. "They were a pleasure to deal with."

After the town’s conservation board makes its decision about whether the project will have an environmental impact, Pratt can enter the last stages of the NYSERDA process. The Authority has 30 to 45 days to review the final proposal and then the wind turbine can be installed on the site, Pratt said.
"Come together"
"Every neighbor that I border has signed on a letter, saying they’re in favor," said Pratt. He said that he thinks people in the Hilltowns wouldn’t be opposed to wind power if they understood it better. Misunderstanding of energy is symptomatic of the country as a whole, he said.
"Now you have a society that wants to turn the light switch on, but doesn’t want to ask where the juice came from," said Pratt. He sees wind power as a good alternative energy source, which will get the country off of its foreign oil dependence and help to lessen the impact on the environment.
"I would take the visual appearance of anything over not being able to breath or see green," said Pratt when asked about the appearance of wind turbines, which was a concern that the town board mentioned at the June 14 meeting when Alexander Gordon addressed the idea of a collectively-owned wind farm in the Hilltowns.
"I’m just worried about the local level," said Supervisor Kevin Crosier. "The vista."
Gordon, who lives in Knox, is an Albany County legislator who has for several years worked on promoting wind power. He is currently working to develop a business plan for a community owned wind farm with a grant from NYSERDA. The first part of the project involves a meteorological tower that will collect data for a year or more. "I hope towns will look at this collectively," said Gordon, "rather than individually."
"The country needs to come together," echoed Pratt on Monday, looking at the energy issue on a larger scale.
"Communities on the Hill need to understand that there is nothing wrong with wind power," said Pratt. He said that commercial wind energy is a viable option for the Hilltowns.

Pratt emphasized the need for the United States to cut its dependence on foreign oil and said that the country should choose the option that is also best for the environment. He thinks that wind power is the right choice.
"Berne may do the same thing as Knox," Pratt said when asked about the neighboring town’s recent moratorium on windmills. The year-long moratorium in Knox, passed by the town board earlier this month, is intended to give the town time to re-write some of its zoning laws.
"It’s not so much that they don’t want them," said Pratt, "they don’t have enough time to write the law."