June 18, 2008
Minnesota
Minnesota
Rural Clay County residents say energy companies are contacting them about a possible wind farm on their property, but Clay County officials say they haven’t heard anything concrete. Melissa Bekkerus says this packet just arrived in her mailbox. It is a folder of information from project Resources Corporation, out of Minneapolis.
Melissa Bekkerus of rural Hawley, MN says, “This is the second company that has confided in us to use our land, and we are kind of up in the air about what we want to do.” They’re contacting the Bekkerus family about putting wind turbines on their land. Melissa: ”The money, and we would probably get a lot of energy off it ourselves, our utility bills would go down, we would be able to use that too.” But, Melissa says she still wants to hear more from the company. She says, “Cuz they don’t make land anymore, we own eighty, they just don’t make it, and I don’t want them to just, I have children, so I don’t want them to have to come and go all the time for maintenance.”
Clay County planning officials have not heard from any of these companies about a wind farm just yet. They have heard that one company is requesting to put up a meteorological tower in rural Hawley. Tim: Magnusson of Clay County Planning says, “This kind of tower is a precursor, a research device for potential of placing actual wind generators. A tower is located in northern Clay County and it continues to gather information for these three wind turbines. Tim: “At different levels up the side of the tower, they will have anemometers, which measure wind speed.
Melissa Bekkerus says she has heard that a person could make more than ten thousand dollars for each turbine, and that could add up if a wind farm is built. Clay County officials say they expect to know more if the company applies for a permit through the state. Once that is done, public hearings will be scheduled in the affected areas.
17 June 2008
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2008/06/18/possible-wind-farm-in-rural-hawley-mn/