March 21, 2013
Ohio

Another wind farm starts process to reality

BY ED GEBERT, Times Bulletin Editor | 3/21/2013 timesbulletin.com

VAN WERT – The region may soon have another wind farm.

The Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB) has announced that a public informational meeting will be held concerning a new 100-megawattt wind farm to be built in Paulding County.

Northwest Ohio Wind Energy, LLC will hold the meeting on Tuesday, April 9 from 6-7:30 p.m. at Wayne Trace Junior/Senior High School, 4915 U.S. 127, near Haviland. The meeting is scheduled to be held before an application for the wind farm is filed.

The proposed facility would consist of approximately 50 wind turbines to be located in Blue Creek and Latty townships of Paulding County. That places the wind farm east of the existing Timber Ridge and Blue Creek wind farms. None of the turbine sites are due to be built in Van Wert County.

Along with the turbines, the project would include associated infrastructure including collection lines and a step-up transformer. The lines would connect to the electric grid at AEP-Ohio’s substation near Haviland. the wind farm would encompass more than 9,000 acres.

Northwest Wind Attorney Sally Bloomfield notified the OPSB in January that the company planned to file a pre-application notification letter “within the next several months.” That letter was sent last Friday.

The company also filed for a series of waivers from some of the specifics in the required filings such as a map of vegetative cover, cross-sectional views and test borings and maps, an extensive site selection study and grade elevations around turbine pedestals. Many of the waiver requests are due to the fact that final locations for each turbine have not been set.

The April 9 meeting provides area residents a chance to see a map of the proposed project and discuss the project with representatives of Northwest Ohio Wind Energy. OPSB representatives will also be on hand to answer questions about the agency’s certification process.

Northwest Ohio Wind Energy LLC was formed in December 2008 with the goal of developing 300 MW of wind energy. The company’s website states that the organization is based around a model of community ownership, where local landowners can become project owners.

The manager and developer of the prospective wind farm is National Wind which is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. National Wind is owned by Trishe Group Company with offices in London, England.

Already Timber Road Wind Farm and Blue Creek Wind Farm are completed and operational. Prairie Creek Wind Farm is still on the drawing board of BP Wind, and is planned for the southern portion of Van Wert County. That project has not begun the application process with the OPSB at this point.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/03/21/another-wind-farm-starts-process-to-reality/