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Thursday, July 16, 2009
Environment - Wind turbines in Indiana [Updated]
Here is a list of some earlier ILB entries on wind turbines:
Today there are two stories from the Indianapolis Star. Jeff Swiatek reports:Environment - Indiana bat endangered by wind farms?
Bats are already at serious risk because of a fungus -- this May 6th story in the Chicago Tribune is headed "Fungus is bat version of the black plague." This June 4th AP story begins:WASHINGTON - A mysterious fungus attacking...
Posted in The Indiana Law Blog on June 11, 2009 06:46 PM
Ind. Courts - "Fight over Boone Co. turbines headed to court"
Richard Essex of WTHR 13 Eyewitness News had this interesting report Sunday:Lebanon - A lawsuit between two Lebanon neighbors is being watched carefully by people in the wind turbine industry. The outcome could effect future commercial and residential development of...
Posted in The Indiana Law Blog on October 27, 2008 08:40 AM
Environment - More on the move to wind power - things to watch for
Recently the ILB posted an entry headed "Porter County braces for future in wind power" (8/25/08) and another headed "In Rural New York, Windmills Can Bring Whiff of Corruption" (8/19/08). Thursday the NY Times had another interesting wind power story,...
Posted in The Indiana Law Blog on August 29, 2008 07:24 AM
Environment - "Porter County braces for future in wind power"
Charles M. Bartholomew reports in the Gary Post-Tribune:VALPARAISO -- Porter County is in the path of a new industrial wind that's blowing across northern Indiana, driven by funding from foreign-based energy companies. Officials here are feeling the breeze in the...
Posted in The Indiana Law Blog on August 25, 2008 01:10 PM
Environment - "In Rural New York, Windmills Can Bring Whiff of Corruption"
A lengthy, fascinating story in Monday's NY Times, by Nicholas Confessore, looks at another aspect of the proliferation of wind turbines along the New York side of the Canadian border. Some quotes:BURKE, N.Y. — Everywhere that Janet and Ken Tacy...
Posted in The Indiana Law Blog on August 19, 2008 06:57 AM
Two European energy companies are locking up land leases for wind farms in Boone County that would bring industrial-size wind turbines.John Ketzenberger, business columnist for the Star, sounds a note of caution:One problem: Boone County's zoning laws prohibit wind turbines, so the proposals could ignite the most intense debate yet in Indiana over how to deal with the surging number of wind farms, which up until now have been relegated to rural counties in the northwestern part of the state.
The Boone County plans are so new that they haven't been presented yet to county government officials, although they have been discussed with landowners at public meetings. The plans call for anywhere from 100 to 260 wind turbines that would together generate 200 to 400 megawatts of electricity.
The upper range is comparable in output to one midsize coal-burning power plant.The companies look to lease 14,000 to 24,000 acres of land in Boone's less-populated western part, which includes the towns of Advance, Jamestown and Thorntown.
Wind energy companies are looking to Boone County because it's one of the windiest counties in the state.
Steve Niblick, executive director of the county's Area Plan Commission, said that because Boone County is in the path of suburban development spreading out from Indianapolis, "we are different than other counties with wind farms. There are just a lot of issues" the county must face, he said.
One of them: Does the county want to allow wind farms and their 200- to 300-foot-tall turbines, which would essentially rule out residential development on tens of thousands of acres for 30 years or longer (the length of a typical wind farm lease)?
"We do realize if we say yes (to wind farms) and they're put in, they are not going to go away," Niblick said.
The two companies leasing land in the county are enXco, which is based in Escondido, Calif., and owned by EDF Energies Nouvelles of Paris; and Gestamp Wind North America, a Houston company with a Spanish parent.
The enXco proposal calls for up to 130 turbines spread over 7,000 to 12,000 acres. Gestamp is looking at a similar-size farm. With large turbines costing up to $4 million each, the total of the two projects in Boone County could top $1 billion, counting lease payments and installation.
The companies have divvied up land where they're signing leases and not bidding against each other. "We're not competing, we're abutting," said Linda Grice, who's negotiating for land for Gestamp.
Boone landowners seem eager to lease their land to the wind farm developers, said enXco marketing manager Sandra Briner. "Obviously there is opposition in some areas, but the communities generally are pretty excited about what wind is going to bring them."
Average lease payments nationally are $5,000 a year per turbine, with smaller payments for easements on power lines and access roads and an upfront one-time check to lock up the land. In Indiana, most recipients of wind farm payments are farmers or farmland owners, who are eager to accept checks for thousands of dollars a year for setting aside just a quarter of an acre per turbine.
The Indiana Farm Bureau hosted a recent meeting for farmland owners to discuss the Boone proposals.
"They have to make a decision on what are the long-term payoffs. What are they giving up?" said Justin Schneider, a Farm Bureau attorney. "It's not like you are signing a one-year lease where you can get rid of somebody if you don't like them."
Just to the north of Boone County in Clinton and Tipton counties, Arlington, Va.-based energy company AES Corp. has proposed a 200-turbine wind farm over 75,000 acres.
Indiana's first wind farm opened last year in Benton County.
Developers and speculators want to lock up land in rural Indiana for wind farms -- the Next Big Thing in the energy business.[Updated at 12:30 PM] The Gary Post Tribune is reporting this afternoon:Does anyone else hear an echo of the ethanol boom from three summers ago?
You remember. Every couple of weeks the state touted another plant to make the ethanol that would help free us from dependence on foreign oil. At one point developers had plans for enough refineries to produce nearly 1 billion gallons of ethanol a year in Indiana.
Along the way to energy independence, everyone would benefit: Farmers would get higher prices for their corn, people near the plants would get jobs and Indiana would reap the benefit from both. * * *
All of this makes the effort to erect two giant wind farms in Boone County, the state's second-windiest locale, worth watching. Putting in the 300-foot turbines is one thing in sparsely populated Benton County, but as Boone County's executive director of the area plan commission, Steve Niblick, said: "We are different than other counties with wind farms."
Changing the county's zoning will be hard enough, but if wealthy opponents appear -- and that's likely -- the two companies trying to assemble at least 14,000 acres for the turbines will have to adjust their plans.
If all 260 of the proposed turbines are put up, they will produce about 400 megawatts of power, or about as much as a midsize coal-burning plant. That's if the wind is blowing and there is an effective way to transport that power from the windmills to the grid.
Reducing the nation's dependence on foreign oil makes perfect sense. The gold-rush mentality of alternative energy developers does not.
MERRILLVILLE — BP has started full construction on a second phase of the Fowler Ridge Wind Farm in Benton County.The second phase will have 133 turbines with a total capacity of 200 megawatts — enough to power 60,000 homes. It's expected to be online in the first quarter of 2010.
The turbines will come from GE and have a capacity of 1.5 megawatts each.
BP estimates the project will employ 400 people on site during peak construction.
"Today marks another significant investment commitment by BP Wind Energy as we continue to build out our wind portfolio," said John Graham, president for BP Wind Energy. "Wind power is a key component of delivering a diverse and adequate energy supply and is one of America's most plentiful and important low-carbon resources. We are pleased to be expanding the Fowler Ridge Wind Farm and once more to be working in the community of Benton County."
The wind farm is located about 90 miles northwest of Indianapolis.
BP said the balance of plant contract for the 17,000-acre site has been awarded to Mortenson Construction of Minneapolis.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 16, 2009 08:54 AM
Posted to Environment