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The (Syracuse, NY) January 23, 2003
FENNER WIND FARM ATTRACTS VISITORS WHO BUY SOUVENIRS Glenn Coin Staff writer The Fenner wind farm
has been a windfall for Donna Griffin.
Griffin, who lives in the middle of the wind farm, has sold more
than 2,000 T-shirts and about 500 caps adorned with a drawing of the wind
turbines. The wind farm opened in late 2001. The wind farm, which has 20 wind turbines stretching across several
miles of hillside in Fenner, started producing power in 2001. It is
the largest in the eastern United States - a fact displayed beneath the
drawings of wind turbines and cows on Griffin's T-shirts, sweat shirts,
hats and key rings.
Griffin sells the merchandise from her home, on Peterboro Road, and
she has a display in Buyea's True Value store in Cazenovia. T-shirts sell
for $14; hats cost $18. The key chains are $1 each.
The wind turbines have become a tourist draw for people around the
state and even in other parts of the country, said Larry Goodsight,
executive director of Madison County Tourism.
"I think the farthest away someone has called me was California,
and they said they were coming through this area and heard we had wind
farms," Goodsight said. "They have been written up in a variety of
publications throughout the country."
The Madison County tourism agency features the wind turbines in its
current travel guide, Goodsight said.
A smaller wind farm, with seven turbines, opened in 2000 in
Madison.
Griffin gives free tours of the wind farm to schools and other
groups. She recently gave one to farmers from Kingston, Ontario, where a
similar wind farm is planned on nearby Wolfe Island. Farmers there were
intrigued by Griffin's side business, said Steve Sottile, a project
officer with Gaia Power in Kingston who organized the bus tour.
"A lot of them had their interest piqued because a lot of tourists
do come over to Wolfe Island," Sottile said. "She did such a wonderful
tour because she has the direct experience from exactly their
perspective."
Two of the turbines sit on the Griffins' farm.
Fenner officials and the owner of the wind farm, CHI Energy
of Massachusetts, are talking about building a tourist information center,
Goodsight said.
"Hopefully, we'll be able to see a more formal type of tourist
attraction with parking, where people can learn about the wind farm," he
said.
Griffin, chairwoman of the town planning board, supports a wind
farm education center.
It wouldn't be bad for business, either, she said. "I really do think there is a need for one, because we do have a
lot of people coming up here," she said.
"If they were to put a visitors center in, I would probably expand
my inventory."
On the Web
You can visit the Fenner wind farm on the Internet:
http://fennerwind.com/.
By the numbers
328: Height of a turbine, in feet, at highest point, taller than a
32-story building
92: Turbine weight, in tons
213: Tower height, in feet
112: Blade length, in feet
231: Rotor diameter, in feet, 10 percent wider than the wingspan of
a Boeing 747 jumbo jet
30: Number of megawatts of energy the Fenner turbines
generate, enough to serve about 10,000 average American homes. | ||