Borrego Solar is proposing a two-turbine wind project for 674 Lawton Hollow Road, Middlebugh.
The five-megawatt project would be built on land owned by Fred and Barbara Echtner.
Borrego rep Dominick Arico brought the project before the Town of Middleburgh Thursday, seeking permission to put up a single wind measuring—MET—tower that would need to be in place for at least a year to determine if there’s even enough wind to go ahead, Mr. Arico said.
While that data’s being collected, Borrego will begin work on things like calculating the turbines’ visual impact and as well as their impact on traffic and “flicker,” Mr. Arico said.
The MET, essentially a large pole, will be about 190 feet tall.
There will be no digging; the pole, compact enough to be delivered in a pickup truck, will be set on a plate, Mr. Arico said.
While the wind data is being collected, Borrego will begin working on the permit for the turbines themselves.
The permitting fee for a MET is $500, Middleburgh Planning Chairman Fred Risse said with the permitting fee for the turbines, $1,000.
Borrego would also be required to set up an account to pay for any experts or consultants the Planning Board would need to hire to evaluate the project, he said.
One concern already is whether the three-phase electric line required to power the turbines goes far enough up Lawton Hollow.
“I have a lot of thoughts concerning these questions already,” Supervisor Wes Laraway said, speaking more broadly.
Among them: noise, Councilman Steve Hendrickson said.
According to Mr. Arico, newer turbines are significantly quieter than, for example, the field of 50 of them outside of Oneonta, and he said the noise they generate sounds more like the wind than anything else.
A noise test, however, would be required as part of the permitting process.
Mr. Arico also said the newer turbines are built with mechanisms that automatically turn them off when there’s icing on the blades or when the temperatures make that seem likely.
The turbines would measure 550 feet from the tip of the blade to the ground, he said.
The Middleburgh Planning Board will be notifying neighbors, both to alert them to the project and to make them aware of any upcoming public hearings on the project, Mr. Risse said.
“We’ll be looking at whether there’s enough wind up there. If there’s not, we’ll go away,” Mr. Arico said.