LEWISTON – Rob Gardiner – well-known to many from his 14 years as head of Maine Public Broadcasting – was in a familiar position Thursday morning: asking an audience for support.

Now co-founder of Independence Wind, a company that identifies and develops wind power sites in Maine, Gardiner was the keynote speaker at the kick-off breakfast for the 13th annual Business to Business Trade Show. The trade show is themed ECOnomics: From Green to Gold, recognizing the advantages of eco-friendly business policies.

“These issues are big and sometimes controversial. People worry about the impacts, but there are resolutions,” said Gardiner of ongoing wind projects. “What we’d like to see from business leaders is a demonstration of commitment to make changes happen.”

Independence Wind has one project under way in Roxbury, where the company plans to erect 21 wind turbines on 8,000 acres. If successful, the wind farm will generate power starting in 2010.

Speaking from the new, green-designed Bates College dining hall, Gardiner said the 150 million kilowatt hours generated by the project would be enough to meet Oxford County’s electrical needs for a year.

“That 150 million kilowatt hours means gas-generated power plants won’t operate for that amount of time,” he said, keeping about $15 to $20 million in gas payments in Maine. “Never mind the millions of pounds of greenhouse gases saved.”

But the road between here and more wind-generated power is pitted. Gardiner said only about 2 percent of Maine’s land mass is suited to wind generation and must be located near existing transmission lines. The costs for planning and permitting are high, as are the costs of the wind turbines themselves, which are in a two-to-three year manufacturing backlog.

And there can be local resistance and zoning ordinances that complicate projects. He noted that the Roxbury project initially planned turbines in neighboring Byron, but that town had a 35-foot height restriction on new structures. The wind turbines are 400-feet tall, with 150-foot-long blades. Byron residents defeated a change to the local zoning laws at their March town meeting that would have allowed the turbines.

Gardiner said Maine needs to embrace alternative, renewable energy sources to climb out of the energy ditch it finds itself in now. Rising global demand for energy coupled with failed U.S. federal policies and consumer complacency has brought the current oil price crisis. Most people can expect to pay an additional $2,500 to heat their homes next winter.

“Maine clearly has the best wind power potential of all New England,” he said. “If we can develop that potential, it will be good for Maine’s economy, our energy independence and reducing global warming.”