August 27, 2007 03:05 pm
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BY ELLEN LUTZ
For the past 20 years, Gamesa has been working with communities worldwide to build wind farms that protect the environment – and the people and wildlife living within it. The proposed Shaffer Mountain wind farm in Somerset and Bedford counties is no different.
Allegheny Mountain residents who attend today’s public meeting and hearing sponsored by the state Department of Environmental Protection will have the chance to learn more about how Gamesa’s efforts to harness the wind are promoting energy independence, environmental protection and economic development.
In advance of that hearing, it is important to address some of the key issues:
Environmental impact: Wind farms leave no lasting legacy. Aside from a superior environmental approach to installation, Gamesa ensures appropriate funds to remove the wind farms at the end of their life cycle. This project’s life-cycle bonding is unmatched by traditional power plants and benefits the customer, community and environment.
Water resources: Wind farms do not pollute or disturb water quantity or quality.
Because the Shaffer Mountain project is being built near “exceptional value” streams, Gamesa is being held to the most stringent environmental standards, and the company has experience building and operating in specially designated areas without impact. Part of the Allegheny Ridge Wind Farm is in an “exceptional value” watershed, and there have been no impacts on streams there.
Birds and raptors: Gamesa has surveyed the project area for birds, bats and eagle nests and found minimal or no impact from the proposed wind farm development. The surveys, which are ongoing, have been coordinated with and reviewed by the state game commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Gamesa continues to study raptors that migrate near Shaffer Mountain. The Shaffer Mountain project has been designed to avoid conflicts with migrating birds, bats and raptors.
Wildlife and habitat: The proposed Shaffer Mountain project has been designed to have little, if any, ecological impact. Gamesa has taken exceptional measures to study the natural habitat of Shaffer Mountain and signed a voluntary agreement with the state game commission to assess potential effects on wildlife before building any wind farm.
Potential habitat for Allegheny woodrats and rattle-snakes was studied, assessed and avoided as part of the Shaffer Mountain project.
Energy supply: The nation’s demand for electricity is increasing at 3 percent per year. The U.S. Department of Energy is calling for a 20 percent penetration of wind energy onto the U.S. electricity grid. Pennsylvania mandates that by 2020, 18 percent of the state’s electricity must come from alternative energy sources, including wind, that can be harnessed in an ecologically sustainable way.
Windmills are a supplement to the nation’s electricity supply and key to promoting greater energy independence.
Cost and reliability: Wind power has been supplying electricity reliably for decades. The cost to produce electricity from wind has declined since the 1970s, and will continue to do so as technology advances. Wind power can help to lower utility costs by guarding against the volatility of traditional fuel sources.
Site selection: Gamesa tries to work in previously disturbed areas as much as possible. However, some areas, such as former mine lands, are too unstable for development or lack sufficient wind resources to generate electricity – as is the case with adjacent mine sites in this location. Wind farms require minimum consistent wind speeds of 15 mph. Pennsylvania has some of the best wind resources east of the Mississippi River, and Shaffer Mountain has some of the best wind resources in the state.
Development: None of Gamesa’s excavation work on Shaffer Mountain will involve blasting. Gamesa’s wind turbines take up less than 1 acre of space and need only an 8-foot foundation, which minimizes impact to the surrounding forest and watersheds.
Gamesa always has and always will value the input of residents. The company has invested more than $100 million in Pennsylvania since 2004 and currently employs 264 employees who call the Allegheny Mountains home.
This project specifically will create 100 temporary construction jobs for steelworkers, electricial workers, heavy-machine operators and more. Ten permanent positions will be created to operate and maintain the wind farm.
We remain committed to our community involvement as much as we are to our environmental mission. With Gamesa’s wind farms, there is no mining, no fuel drilling, no radioactive or hazardous wastes, no need for water for steam or cooling and no harmful air emissions. Wind energy is the most environmentally compatible energy source commercially available today. And, because the fuel is free, it helps to stabilize electricity costs in the short term.
If wind power ever reaches 10 percent of our electricity supply, it also will be responsible for reducing our cost of electricity.
Harnessing wind in an ecologically sustainable way, Gamesa is helping to power communities with energy that is clean, reliable, renewable and affordable.
Ellen Lutz is development director for Gamesa’s Atlantic Division in Philadelphia.
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