The Public Service Board has opened hearings on Green Mountain Power's plans to harness the wind that blows over a mountain ridge in the Northeast Kingdom.

VPR's John Dillon talks with Jane Lindholm about the finances, science and cultural sensitivity of large-scale wind energy projects in Vermont.

Most people think of big wind projects as a way to harvest the breezes that blow freely across the earth. But sophisticated investors look at big wind quite differently. That's because besides generating electricity, the large-scale projects also involve sophisticated financial instruments that harvest tax benefits.

Supporters and opponents of commercial-scale wind energy projects on Vermont's ridgelines use a lot of statistics and facts to argue their very different sides of the debate. So it's difficult to sort out how much carbon pollution might be cut if there were big wind turbines in the mountains. Or whether the wind generators could replace bigger electric plants, such as Vermont Yankee.

This week, the Public Service Board opens hearings on Vermont's largest wind development - a proposal for 21 wind turbines that would stand 440 feet tall on a ridgeline in Lowell. Developers hoped to avoid some of the controversy that other projects have faced by asking for, and winning, voters' support last Town Meeting Day. But it hasn't been that easy.