Wind-energy company will test conditions for more turbines
A company that develops wind energy projects will be allowed to put more data-collection devices in northern Mower County, which could lead to a project involving more than 170 wind turbines.
The Mower County Board unanimously approved on Tuesday a request from Renewable Energy Systems America for conditional-use permits to install and operate two meteorological towers in Waltham Township, one tower in Sargeant Township and one in Dexter Township.
The towers collect data on wind speeds. RES already has two two in Mower County.
Jeff Broberg, a consultant for RES, said three of the towers will be 190 feet tall and the other, in Waltham, will be about 260 feet tall.
The county requires the towers to have blinking lights on top and be painted in alternating red and white.
After the meeting, Dave Savage, from the RES office in Minneapolis, said the plan is to build about 174 wind turbines in five Mower County townships — Dexter, Pleasant Valley, Red Rock, Sargeant and Waltham. It will connect with another proposed wind development in the southern part of neighboring Dodge County, he said.
If everything goes well, the wind turbines could be operating in three years, Savage said, but the process is slow for getting wind farms connected to the overall power grid.
RES officials, he said, are working with more than 300 landowners in Mower and Dodge counties for the project.
Officials with RES first brought their wind-farm plans to the Mower County Board in May 2007.
By Tim Ruzek
Post-Bulletin, Austin MN
3 September 2008
The copyright of this article is owned by the author or publisher indicated. Its availability here constitutes a "fair use" as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law as well as in similar "fair dealing" exceptions of the copyright laws of other nations, as part of National Wind Watch's effort to advance understanding of the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development. For more information, click here.
Blog it:
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
|
