Iberdrola is one of the owners of the Maple Ridge wind farm on the Tug Hill Plateau. With 195 turbines spanning miles of ridgeline, it's the largest wind farm in the East. Bill Moore is an energy consultant for Iberdrola. Starting in the late 1990s, Moore was the man who went door-to-door to persuade local residents to welcome wind power. Today the project has been producing electricity for almost three years. David Sommerstein asked Bill Moore how it's been going. They talk about megawatts, bird and bat mortality, and the vicious debate over wind power in the North Country.
Since their conversation, the New York Times reported that Maple Ridge has been forced to shut down sometimes because regional electric lines have been too congested to send the power downstate. Moore wouldn't talk about the article on tape. But he did confirm that Maple Ridge has had to shut down its turbines "about half a dozen times a year." Moore said that happens during the spring and fall, when electricity demand is lowest. He said as more wind farms come online in Clinton and Jefferson Counties, the problem could get worse. He agreed with the basic premise of the Times story, that wind energy is hampered by "insufficient grid capacity" to deliver electricity from where the wind blows to where the most people are.
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NCPR News Staff: David Sommerstein
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 David Sommerstein, NCPR's roving St. Lawrence Valley/Fort Drum/Tug Hill reporter, began his career in radio, strangely enough, as a high school Spanish teacher in Buffalo. While drilling verb conjugations and teaching a love for Latino culture during the day, he sat in as a late night jazz and Latin DJ at Buffalo's NPR affiliate, WBFO. The radio bug bit, and David found his way to southern Colorado/northern New Mexico (the Taos/Santa Fe area) where he was Program Director, Music Director, Volunteer Coordinator, and "Just About Anything Else You Can Think Of" Director at NPR affiliate KRZA. Since joining NCPR's news department, David has reported from the chilly deck of a St. Lawrence icebreaker, the power-chord filled stage of the High School Rock Band Festival, and the tense Albanian street market of post-war Kosovo with soldiers from Fort Drum. David also gets to fulfill his passion for music of all kinds when he spins world dance and groove music on editions of The Beat Authority. E-mail Recent David Sommerstein stories carried by NPR:
 August 6, 2008 | NPR· With heating oil prices projected to soar, homeowners in the Northeast are bracing for a budget-stretching winter. So are the people who deliver the oil. They are caught in the middle between global oil traders and anxious customers. August 5, 2008 | NPR· It's still hot outside, but Northeasterners are already bracing for the cold. Heating oil prices have almost doubled over last year. Kerosene and natural gas are up, too. Local officials are preparing for what they fear could be a drawn-out crisis this winter. June 29, 2008 | NPR· Sports blogs give fans more information about their favorite teams than ever before. Readers of a popular blog about the New York Yankees are now meeting in real life to watch a ball game. March 21, 2008 | NPR· With drunken-driving offenses spiraling dangerously out-of-control at Fort Drum as soldiers return from Iraq, the base commander orders the post newspaper to publish the names and pictures of the arrested soldiers in what he calls an effort to shame troops into changing their dangerous habits. March 16, 2008 | NPR· Sick and tired of bake sales to raise money for school projects? Try donkey basketball. Schools around the country are inviting the braying animals to put on a show in the school gymnasium. But not everyone thinks the donkeys are having as good a time as the fans. December 6, 2007 | NPR· A political backlash killed a plan in New York to give illegal immigrants drivers licenses. But that hasn't taken immigrants off the roads. Life without a drivers license has pros and cons for farm workers in rural upstate New York. November 4, 2007 | NPR· The Army's most battle-tested brigade is returning to Fort Drum in New York. Some members of the 10th Mountain Division's Second Brigade have done three tours in Iraq. September 28, 2007 | NPR· The value of the Canadian dollar is now about equal to the U.S. dollar, a change that has touched off a bit of a shopping spree along the international border. Reporter David Sommerstein checks in from a mall in Massena, N.Y., near the St. Lawrence River. May 15, 2007 | NPR· U.S. troops continue to search for three American soldiers believed captured by an al-Qaida-affiliated group during an ambush Saturday south of Baghdad. Four soldiers were killed in the attack. Army officials confirm that all seven men were members of the 10th Mountain Division, based at Fort Drum. May 7, 2007 | NPR· Each spring, nature deals parts of the rural North a cruel fate: the arrival of black flies. But Andrea Malik, a resident of northern New York, bushwhacks into the deepest woods to fight back with a pesticide that kills only black flies and mosquitoes. |
