Alternative energy advocates are looking at several New Hampshire communities as possible locations to expand the use of wind power to generate electricity.
Research is being conducted in Plymouth to gauge the viability of a wind farm there, according to two advocacy groups.
The city of Berlin plans to have a working wind farm by the end of the year, and the town of Lempster also is moving forward with a proposal. Both mirror major wind farm projects in surrounding states.
Searsburg Wind Farm operates a six-megawatt operation in Vermont powering 2,000 households in the state’s south. Statewide, there are more than six other proposed commercial wind farms under consideration.
Evergreen Wind Power LLC has begun building a 50 to 60 megawatt wind farm in Mars Hill, Maine. The project could be 10 times larger than the Searsburg wind farm and plans to break ground in 2006.
Sandra Jones, of the Plymouth Area Renewable Energy Initiative, said wind speed tests are occurring on top of the Tenney Mountain ridge line.
Nancy Girard, a lawyer with the Concord office of the Conservation Law Foundation, said Wind Works LLC, based in Charlotte, Vt., hopes to build a wind farm in the community.
Brian Killkelley, a Wind Works official, would not confirm whether a project is under way in Plymouth, but said the company was pursuing several options to bring wind farms to New Hampshire.
“It’s hard to say when,” he said. “The market is pretty competitive, so we’re making sure we are going in a good direction with our business plan.”
Wind maps show the White Mountains and surrounding areas provide the state’s highest sustained winds.
Girard said she envisions wind power someday contributing 10 percent of New Hampshire’s power supply.
But that may not happen without resistance. Some people object to the towering turbines and dislike their placement on visible ridge lines.
Organizations, including the Maine Audubon Society, also have expressed concern that birds and bats would be killed in collisions with turbines.
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