Green Mountain Power (GMP) has announced that the first wind turbine has been erected at its 63 MW Kingdom Community Wind project in Vermont.
The initial turbine is the first of 21 Vestas V112 3.0 MW turbines to be erected on Lowell Mountain that will generate enough renewable electricity to power more than 24,000 Vermont homes, according to GMP.
"The mild winter allowed us to ramp construction back up in early April, and we've been steadily moving forward since then,” notes Mary Powell, GMP’s president and CEO.
GMP received approval from the Public Service Board to build the Kingdom Community Wind facility in June 2011 and broke ground on the project in September.
GMP says its environmental efforts are among the most extensive for such a project in Vermont. For example, for the first time for either wind or ski areas, there will be biological monitoring of streams during and following construction. GMP has also voluntarily collected data about the water chemistry of all the streams around the project to understand and protect future water quality.
GMP expects the project to be operational by the end of this year.
