State officials and developers gathered Tuesday atop Maryland's highest mountain near Oakland to celebrate the recent completion of the state's second commercial wind power project, even as controversy continues about such ridgetop facilities' impacts on birds and bats. 

With 20 2.5-megawatt turbines strung along Backbone Mountain, the Roth Rock wind "farm" is expected to generate enough electricity to power all the homes in Garrett County, according to the Maryland Energy Administration.   It began operating in August, with Delmarva Power buying 80 percent of its output and the University System of Maryland and the state Department of General Services purchasing the rest.  The state's first wind farm owned by Constellation Energy, built nearby on the same mountain, began producing power last winter.

The Roth Rock project, developed by Synergics of Annapolis, has had a long and controversial history.  Its ridgetop siting was fought by conservationists worried that the turbines would kill migratory songbirds and bats, some of them already endangered.  At wind developers' behest, the General Assembly then limited state regulators review of wind projects' environmental impacts, prompting conservationists to cry foul. 

State environmental regulators did temporarily halt work on the project at one point last year over sediment and erosion problems at the construction site.  Synergics last year sold the project to Gestamp Wind North America, part of a European multinational corporation. 

Wind developers contend there are few birds and bats harmed by the towering turbines. But wildlife concerns about this wind project and others linger.  The American Bird Conservancy contends there have been sizable bird kills over the past eight years at wind projects in neighboring West Virginia. Nearly 500 were killed last month alone at one facility, the group said recenltly, not from being hit by the spinning turbine blades but from lights left on overnight at the facility's mountaintop electrical substation.  Lighting can be a fatal attraction for birds at night, advocates say, leading them to fly into the illuminated structure or to circle it in confusion until they drop from exhaustion.

Conservationists threatened last year to sue to stop the Roth Rock project over concerns its turbines would kill rare Indiana and Virginia big-eared bats.  The company denied its turbines posed a threat to bats, and no legal action was taken. Conservationists did sue Constellation over the impac ton bats of its turbines; federal court records indicate that case is on hold for now as the parties discuss a settlement.

(Roth Rock turbines, photo courtesy Frank Maisano)