Forested ridgelines in Coos County could soon sprout a new source of electricity for the state and the region: 33 wind turbines generating enough power for 33,000 homes.

Granite Reliable Power, a subsidiary of a Connecticut company that is developing wind farms in eight states, has asked the state to allow it to build turbines at high points in Dixville and Millsfield, both unincorporated areas.

The state committee responsible for siting new energy facilities is reviewing the proposal. A public hearing is scheduled for next month at Groveton High School.

The turbines would be 410 feet tall and produce 99 megawatts of power that would feed into a transmission line known as the Coos County loop. The wind farm would effectively absorb the remaining capacity in the loop.

Upgrades would have to be made before new electricity generators, including biomass plants, could come online. That's a significant issue for planners looking to take advantage of the North Country's wind and biomass resources to diversify the state's energy supply and boost the economy in a region hit hard by the failing paper industry.

The $247 million wind farm, scheduled to start operating in 2010, would move the state closer to its goals for producing more of its energy with renewable resources.

Spokeswoman Anna Giovinetto said in an e-mail that the construction would create up to 210 jobs in the area. She said she could not comment much on the project, because the company recently filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to become public and is required to go through a "quiet period."

Rep. Fred King, a Colebrook Republican and a member of the county planning board, which oversees land use in the unincorporated areas, said the county delegation and commissioners have endorsed the wind project. But, he said, he has made it his "mission in life" to see the transmission line upgraded so biomass plants, which would create more long-term jobs and sustain the region's history of logging, can be built, too.

"It's safe to say, if we did get to vote on it and we had the two to pick from (biomass and wind), my guess is we'd probably vote for the biomass plant," he said.

Windy days

A new wind farm is being erected now, piece by massive piece, in Lempster. Iberdrola Renewables, a subsidiary of a Spanish company, is in the process of putting up 12 turbines that will produce 24 megawatts. The turbines have started to pop up on Lempster Mountain, where winds consistently blow above 15 mph, according to spokesman Paul Copelman.

Copelman said Iberdrola Renewables has applied for permits for wind farms with 20 turbines in Massachusetts and 17 turbines in Vermont.

Granite Reliable Power's parent company, Nobel Environmental Power, which is majority-owned by JPMorgan Partners, has a total of 3,850 megawatts of wind power under development in eight states: Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Texas, Vermont and Wyoming.

Such projects are becoming more viable in New England as states give incentives to renewable-energy developers.

In 2006, Gov. John Lynch set a goal for 25 percent of the state's total energy use, including the transportation sector, to come from renewable sources by 2025. In April of that year, the Legislature passed a bill requiring utilities to begin buying or producing renewable energy in small amounts at first and then make it nearly 25 percent of what they sell by Lynch's target year. The bill set what is called a "renewable portfolio standard."

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