Winds over Franklin could be generating electricity and tax dollars in the near future. Early last year, Horizon Wind Energy erected a meteorological tower on the northwest slope of Northfield Mountain at the Perout property bordering Whitbeck Road (seasonal) off Russell Road in Merrrickville. Results have been promising enough that the company has begun the application process at the NYS Public Service Commission to interconnect new distributed generation units. This would permit the company to connect to the regional power grid at the existing power lines that run east-west through Franklin, thus allowing the export of power from wind turbines if they are erected. We could have wind turbines before drilling rigs.
Horizon Wind Energy of Houston, TX, owns and operates two dozen wind farms in the United States. In New York, there are the large Maple Ridge Wind Farms in Lewis County (Tug Hill Plateau) with 194 turbines (322 MW capacity) and the Madison Wind Farm in Madison County with 7 turbines (12 MW capacity). Their Danish Vesta turbines have towers over 200 feet tall and blades over 100 feet long. The Madison Wind Farm pays tens of thousands of dollars in property taxes annually.