County approves towers to collect wind data
Commercial wind power could be coming to Washington County in a few years, but the first step in determining whether it will is to see if there is enough wind.
Toward that end, the Washington County Planning Board Thursday night approved conditional-use permit requests for meteorological towers to be placed on ridges in the southeast part of the county to determine the feasibility of productive wind turbines in those areas.
The conditional-use permits were approved for Invenergy Wind Development, which is a Chicago-based company, to place the test towers on the property of Henry and Vickie Rankin, 16028 Sunset Road, and Lane and Robert Spears, 18687 Kilowatt Road. The nearest homes to the towers are 350 and 219 feet away, respectively.
“The applicant is looking at commercial wind development in this area,” Washington County Planning Director Juliet Richey said.
Windmills convert wind power into electricity in wind farm operations. There are large, commercial wind farms as well as individual turbines for personal or small-business use. A couple of people in the county have already been using the latter.
The company is leasing the land for the test towers.
The towers are to be about 197 feet in height and will not exceed 199 feet in height, according to the staff information presented to the Planning Board.
There will be no lighting needed for the towers. Lighting is required by the Federal Aviation Administration if a tower is more than 200 feet in height. The towers will be in place for one to three years for meteorological monitoring.
“What will happen with the towers three years from now?” Planning Board member Larry Walker asked.
Richey said they will be removed by the company and moved to other areas to test other wind resource areas.
In her staff report, Richey stated that company representatives think there is a potential for significant wind resources in this area. The towers will test this theory. They will collect wind and weather data over the one- to three-year period to determine whether the wind resource in this area is good enough to look at further wind development.
Brandon Ferrall, development manager for Invenergy, said there are test towers all over the country, although he would not specify where. He said the company has wind turbine projects in Texas.
He said the project in this area is in the “very beginning stages.”
Richey stressed that if there is potential for commercial-type wind development in the area, then that proposed development will be reviewed under a different application.
After the conditional-use permits were approved for the test towers, Richey asked the Planning Board to set aside time at the end of the February meeting to discuss regulations for wind farms. The board agreed to discuss it at that time.
Planning Board member Gary Head suggested looking at other communities’ regulations when it comes to wind farms, “rather than try to reinvent this.”
Richey said planning staff already has gathered “a bunch” of information about regulations.
“We’re going to bring you assimilated information to that meeting,” she said.
She said there is a range of different ordinances, some of them look at aesthetics. She said she is taking more of a practical approach in looking at wind farm regulations, such as abandonment clauses.
“That’s the path that we’ve been on so far,” she said.
Walker said he has heard concerns about noise among other issues. Richey said planning staff is looking into that issue.
If commercial wind farms to come to the county, she said, they “are going to be very large developments.”
By Trish Hollenbeck
Northwest Arkansas Times
9 January 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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