The benefits of wind power in Maine have been talked about for decades. This has generated a lot of hot air, but no energy. A bill, sponsored by Sen. Ethan Strimling, offers a good way to end the talking and start the power generation.

As amended after conversations with the Natural Resources Council of Maine, LD 1379 would encourage the development of small wind projects with state money for financing and a streamlined regulatory process. Most important, the bill directs the Land Use Regulation Commission, the body that oversees the state’s Unorganized Territories, to map out where wind farms should be located and where they should not. If this doesn’t finally spur the building of wind turbines, perhaps nothing will.

Much time and energy has been devoted to building large wind farms, one of which is supposed to begin construction in Aroostook County

this summer. However, few such pro-jects have been developed nationally, and attention is shifting to smaller-scale endeavors.

Small-scale wind can be a single turbine on a farm or remote homestead. It also can be a cluster of turbines owned by local residents or a commercial cooperative. In Germany, a third of the country’s wind power comes from turbines owned by local landowners and residents. More than 200,000 people own a share of a nearby wind turbine.

A major benefit of such small projects is that they are locally conceived and owned, so opposition is minimized.

LD 1379 would follow this model by setting up a small revolving loan fund that could be accessed by groups seeking to build small wind projects, probably three to six turbines. Municipalities would be given top priority, but any groups could apply for a loan.

The bill, which the Utilities Committee is scheduled to consider early this week, sets a goal of 300 megawatts of wind generated power by 2011, more ambitious than anything proposed so far.

The bill also encourages those seeking to build wind turbines to join forces with the cellular phone industry. Gov. John Baldacci has made improving mobile phone reception a top priority. One way to do this is to couple cellular phone repeaters with wind towers. This will cut down on the regulatory hurdles, making both quicker to build. A major objection to both wind projects and cell phone towers is that they are unattractive and can harm birds and bats. Combining communications equipment with power-generating wind towers cuts down on both complaints.

Such combinations are commonplace in Europe, but experts are not aware of their installation in the United States. Maine could pioneer this technology which could breed research and development and manufacturing facilities here.

Call it a wind-win situation.