First two wind power towers up on Mount Jericho [03/18/2006]

By Gail Scott

After nearly a year of work, Christian Lorangers Loranger Power Generation company has raised the first two of four windmills on Mount Jericho.The small wind farm is expected to generate 1.4 megawatts or, operating at full capacity, enough energy to meet the needs of between 400 and 700 households, depending on the season.The power will be sold to PSNH, making its way via the company into the ISO New England grid.In the future, Loranger, 35, an Acushnet, Mass., resident, hopes to expand his North Country wind farm, perhaps to as many as 30 turbines, but for that he will have to go back to the planning board. Right now, the four turbines will get things started.Its a small step, but I think its great for the country, Loranger says. I hate to see where we are at with the energy policy and I will do everything I can to get us more independent so we can take care of ourselves. I needed to break into the business somehow and this is a great way to do it. This is a great areathe best place I could possibly have done it and thats something when you can look back on a year of work and say that.Loranger, who has made himself a student of the world's energy supplies, says he looks at oil reserve information and, although the Saudis dont publish their reserves information, it is known how much sea water they are pumping into their oil fields. It is increasing exponentially, Loranger says, an indication that they are topping out.But Loranger doesnt see himself just jumping on a bandwagon with his wind farm and additional projects in bio diesel elsewhere. Hes serious.You have to put your money where your mouth is, he says. I laugh when I see that such and such a company has made an application for a wind farm in Maine or Vermont or Massachusetts, listing 30 megawatts and 40 megawatts. To get those turbines, to get them delivered and have the infrastructure with a grid that can take that kind of power and to be in the right wind zone a lot of things have to come together and culminate and, number one, you have to have the money to do it. If there is one of those mega projects built, Ill be surprised.And you have to have a progressive area with intelligent people who are willing and can understand the principles that are involved with all aspects of the project. That is very difficult to find. I have found Berlin to have those qualities. The people in the city are extremely intelligent mechanically and that has been very, very helpful, he says.He adds that he has great respect for Mayor Bob Danderson.I would really like to see the city do well and the mayor is pushing for it. Hes not a pushover. He lays down what he wants and what hes willing to do and you have to do what you said youd do, Loranger says.The energy projects are a third business iteration for Loranger who graduated from University of Maine in 1993 and decided he didnt want to continue his medical studies. He was painting houses for the summer that year and ran into a guy at a local lumber yard wearing a hat with cranberries on it. They fell into conversation. The guy told him he knew where there was a cranberry bog for sale. Knowing nothing about cranberry farming, Loranger took a look at the bog and bought it. They gave me a mortgage and five years to pay it back at an outrageous interest, Loranger says.Loranger succeeded, buying up more and more bogs at the height of the cranberry boom, until he had 72 acres of bogs on 600 acres of land in Lakeville, Raynham, and Hampton, Mass.When the bloom was off the cranberry business, Loranger began selling the property to developers. He still has about 20 acres left, he says, but he had developed a great interest in the energy business.He focused on wind power because he wanted a project he could do himself and I like the fact that the input energy is free. You dont have to worry about a commodity price increasing and ruining the profit.He researched wind patterns, using U.S. Government data, and had done a lot of skiing at Wildcat, so he was pleased to see that the wind patterns on Mount Jericho were within the parameters he sought. He found used towers and turbines for sale at an expanding wind farm in Tehachipi, Calif., and had them rebuilt and shipped east. Then a 140-acre site became available on Mount Jericho.Loranger had looked at a number of sites in the area as far north as Errol. The wind patterns in Errol would actually have been a little better, he said, but Errol lacked the access to the infrastructure he needed for the wind farm.Three phase power ends there, he says. That was a limiting factor. We wanted to be close to all of the materials we would need to do the project. Berlin is perfect. We could get cement, rebar from Isaacsons, get our machining done at Cross Machines. Berlin was the best possible spot. And power generation is nothing new in the area.In the spring of 2005 Loranger bought the property on Mount Jericho, got the necessary permits for his wind farm, and he, his wife, Aileen, and his father, Bernard Loranger, went to work. They set up 38 telephone poles for the power line down from the wind farm. They built the forms for 28 block foundations and dug the holes, drilling into the ledge. Twelve rebar holes were drilled into each foundation, the rebar anchored into the ledge and all rebar wire-tied. Then they had to get the concrete up the steep slope and pour the base blocks for the towers and supporting cable guides.The blocks are from eight- to twelve-feet deep, he said, and of varying sizes, depending on the load theyll be required to sustain.Then early this spring the towers were towed to the wind farm site and now are beginning to be raised into place. The towers are hinged at the base. With the gin pole system, they can lift or lay a tower over using anchored winches.Everythingthe tower, the blades and the nacell which is the torpedo-like structure that contains the electrical generator and the rotors that pitch the blades and spin the nacell depending on the wind directioncan be lifted or laid down in one piece in 25 minutes, so all maintenance work can be done on the ground.The turbines can function at wind speeds from 6 mph to 60 mph, Loranger says. The computer operating each tower shuts down and locks the blades at speeds just under 60 mph.The towers themselves are 160-feet tall. The rotors are 76-feet and 78-feet (two of each) so when the turbines are operating, the height of the towers is about 200-feet.Loranger says that hed be willing to put a police repeater or any other public interest infrastructure for the city of Berlin on the site.This was a great opportunity for me. Its a great area. The Council and the Mayor are very analytical, very smart. They look at a new idea and analyze it well. Ive dealt with towns in a variety of locations and these people were the most intelligent in any town Ive ever dealt with. In the end, with all the factors coming together, thats why weve chosen to be in Berlin, he says.