Category Archives: Wind

SHEFFIELD — A review of a commercial wind project in Vermont says the project should not have used the same firm to monitor noise levels and perform compliance tests.
A Windam, Maine-based consultant doing the review of Sheffield Wind Project data for an environmental group says it indicates a potential for a conflict of interest.
The wind project began generating last fall. Its 16 turbines generate enough power for about 15,000 homes.
First Wind said it hired a “highly-qualified company” with nearly 40 years in acoustical consulting to conduct the compliance monitoring. It said the monitoring has followed protocol approved by the state Public Service Board.
The Caledonian-Record reports a state official said the Department of Public Service is in the process of hiring its own consultant to conduct noise monitoring.

SHEFFIELD — The company that owns and operates a Vermont wind power project in Sheffield is asking the state for permission in advance in case endangered bats are killed by spinning turbine blades.
FirstWind Vice President Dave Cowan says the Boston-based company has asked the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources for the first-ever “Endangered and Threatened Species Taking Permit.”
The state of Vermont placed the little brown bat on the state’s endangered species list last year because the species has been decimated by white nose syndrome.
Cowan says that in the last year 20 bats were killed at the Sheffield wind farm, although bone were little browns.
He tells the Caledonian Record the permit would allow the incidental killing of up to four individual little brown bats per year.