PRESQUE ISLE – A conference that may ultimately provide significant economic benefits to participants will soon be held.
The “Wind Farming: Harvesting Clean Energy” conference will be held Tuesday, Oct. 23 at the University of Maine at Presque Isle Campus Center. The tour, on Wednesday, Oct. 24, will be held at the UPC Wind Farm on Mars Hill Mountain and at a wind turbine located at the home of David Gordon in Oakfield.
Contributed photo
THE “WIND FARMING: HARVESTING CLEAN ENERGY” conference will be held Tuesday, Oct. 23 at the University of Maine at Presque Isle Campus Center. The tour on Wednesday, Oct. 24 will be held at the UPC Wind Farm on Mars Hill Mountain and at the wind turbine at the home of David Gordon in Oakfield. The purpose of the conference is to provide participants information regarding how wind resources can be developed to grow rural economies – including farmers. Speakers at the daylong conference will cover numerous important topics. Pictured last winter is one of the UPC Wind Management wind turbines on Mars Hill Mountain.
The purpose of the conference is to provide participants information regarding how wind resources can be developed to grow rural economies including businesses, municipalities, agricultural producers and homeowners. Speakers at the daylong conference will cover numerous important topics.
Among the speakers will include Sen. Phil Bartlett, who will describe wind power as Maine’s new growth industry and will outline wind as a resource along with its political landscape; nationally recognized speaker Larry Flowers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, who will describe the economic benefits of wind in growing our rural economies; Ralph Nelson, PE from Devine Tarbell & Associates, who will outline the steps of developing a wind project; and Sue Jones of Community Energy Partners, who will describe economic models that many farmers and municipalities elsewhere in the United States have used to develop locally owned wind projects.
Speakers who will be describing available economic support for the development of wind projects include Shirley Bartlett from Maine’s State Energy Program, Mike Aube from USDA Rural Development and Commissioner John Richardson from the Department of Economic & Community Development. Other conference speakers will include Don Zillman, president of the University of Maine at Presque Isle, who will speak about the wind turbine project currently being developed at UMPI; Ray Mersereau, Mars Hill Town Manager, who will share the “Lessons Learned from the Development of the Mars Hill Wind Project,” and Mike Alvarez from UPC Wind Management, who will address “The Making of Mars Hill: What Went into the Project.” Other conference speakers will be covering additional topics.
The tour the following day will include a presentation from UPC Wind Management at their Mars Hill Wind Farm on Mars Hill Mountain. Also part of the tour will be a presentation from David Gordon, who will describe his 10 years of experiences with his windmill at his home in Oakfield.
Registration is $60 for the conference and tour, $40 for the conference only, and $30 for the tour only. Please make checks payable to the St. John Aroostook RC&D Council. Registrations must be received by Oct. 15.
For more information or to register, please contact St. John Aroostook RC&D, 735 Main St. Suite 3, Presque Isle, Maine 04769; telephone number: 207-764-4126 ext 5, fax number: 207-768-3407, or e-mail: skip.babineau@me.usda.gov or stephanie.landry@me.usda.gov.
