Portsmouth breaks ground for wind turbine (update)

By John McDaid | Friday, 13 June 2008
Town Council President Dennis Canario and AAER CEO Dave Gagnon break ground for the Portsmouth Wind Turbine.



About 40 residents, elected officials, and fans of green energy gathered on the hillside in back of Portsmouth High School this afternoon as Town Council President Dennis Canario and the CEO of turbine manufacturer AAER broke ground for Portsmouth's new wind generator.

"This represents the culmination of the hard work and collaboration of a number of organizations," said Council President Dennis Canario. "It is testimony to the cooperation of the officials of the town, the school department, and the state. I have to emphasize that this project could not have gone forward without the commitment and the support of the citizens of the Town of Portsmouth. This is truly the Town's wind turbine."

AAER CEO Dave Gagnon, the manufacturers of the turbine, said "Our company is proud to associate itself with a community with such vision." He praised the partnership with local officials, and with a hearty "Let's catch the wind, Portsmouth," he and President Canario donned hard hats and took up their ceremonial shovels.

Members of the Town Council, the school committee, and the Portsmouth Economic Development committee (PEDC) looked on as the first earth was moved on the project. One can only imagine how Rich Talipsky, who heads the PEDC and Gary Gump, who led the Sustainable Energy subcommittee which planned the turbine, felt watching dirt finally fly. All the members of the PEDC deserve the thanks of the town for their more than three years of work behind the scenes to put this together. (Especially the energy subcommittee which, in addition to Gump, included Bob Hamilton, Steve Lake, John Palmieri, and Rich Talipsky.)

Installation of the 1.5-megaWatt turbine is scheduled around November, following site preparation work and wiring that will take place over the summer. When the blades begin turning in late 2008, they are expected to generate over 3 million kilowatt-hours of power per year, offsetting electricity needs at the high school and producing about $100K in revenue each year, according to a release made available at the ceremony.

Update: Pix up on Flickr

Tags: 
Localblogging, 02871, WTG

Comments

Viking

Sat, 06/14/2008 - 6:02pm

Sorry - couldn't resist!

John McDaid

Sat, 06/14/2008 - 7:55pm

Hiya, Viking...
Break Like The Wind.

Cheers.
-j

Wernerlll

Mon, 06/16/2008 - 9:54am

One small step for Portsmouth in demonstrating renewable energy projects can succeed - Congratulations to our community at large.
Let us pray that the mid-west weather trends will not move further in our direction. While our federal government we elected has failed us in both a comprehensive and integrated national energy program as well as energy conservation and mitigating use of fossil fuels.
The Republican side of our US Senate succeeded in scuttling the renewable energy tax credits expiring this year so vital to make "renewable" sources competitive, yet the huge tax credits favoring "Big Oil", augmented by off-shore tax loopholes, remain intact.
So our nation will continue to rely on band aide energy projects for renewable (non-fossil) sources, in order to achieve no more than 2% of US total electrical energy production. Instead, dirty coal, exacerbated by dirty mining practices, will continue as well.
Of course the next president (let's pray McCain does not get in somehow) will have a difficult time raising revenue unless China keeps purchasing our treasury bonds which our children will have to pay off some day.
I keep hoping that the voters will not again be bamboozled by Republican fear/war mongering propaganda and get our country back on the right track.
Cheers,
Wernerlll