December 17, 2011
New York

Orangeville wind farm gets OK

By Matt Surtel, The Daily News, thedailynewsonline.com 17 December 2011

ORANGEVILLE – The state Public Service Commission has given the go-ahead for the Stony Creek Wind Farm.

Developer Stony Creek Energy LLC will still need independent certification that its wind turbines – a new General Electric model – conform to industry standards and their expected performance should be achieved.

But the authorization otherwise clears the way for the controversial project.

“We are pleased to have received this important approval of the Stony Creek Wind Farm, and look forward to being able to build another renewable energy project for New York,” said a Stony Creek Energy spokesperson.

The project will include up to 59 wind turbines with a generating capacity of 1.6 megawatts each. The turbines will be up to 430 feet tall.

The state’s authorization also allows Stony Creek to begin site development for a two-acre substation and connect into a 230-kilovolt transmission line owned by New York State Electric & Gas.

The PSC’s approval also includes access roads; underground electric lines; a construction staging area; and a centrally-located operation and maintenance facility.

Stony Creek Energy is a subsidiary of Chicago-based Invenergy. The firm signed a host community agreement with the Town of Orangeville this past August.

When combined with a separate Payment In Lieu of Taxes agreement, the town will receive about $667,000 annually for 20 years.

The agreement also includes an escalation clause meaning the town’s annual payment will increase based on the rate of inflation. All told, the payments will total more than $16 million to Orangeville over two decades.

A total of $120,000 in PILOT payments will also be shared by Warsaw and Attica central schools and Wyoming County.

Invenergy officials on Friday said they don’t have an updated construction schedule.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/12/17/orangeville-wind-farm-gets-ok/