December 18, 2014
Nebraska

Proposed wind farm still up in the air

Andy Raun | Hastings Tribune | December 17, 2014 | www.hastingstribune.com

RED CLOUD – The fate of a key application concerning proposed development of the Cottonwood wind farm in rural Webster County likely will be decided over the next month or so, a county official said Tuesday.

Keith Buschow of Blue Hill, chairman of the Webster County Board of Commissioners, said the community would be notified once the commissioners have scheduled a public hearing on the application for a conditional use permit by NextEra Energy Resources.

NextEra, a Florida company, is seeking to establish the Cottonwood project south of Blue Hill, with as many as 66 turbine towers dotting the landscape both north and south of Nebraska Highway 4.

East to west, the project area stretches about 10 miles from Nebraska Highway 78.

Altogether, the turbines would generate an estimated 113.7 megawatts of electricity.
The public hearing will take place at some point before the commissioners vote for or against the NextEra application, Buschow said. The application won a positive recommendation from the Webster County Joint Planning Commission Monday evening and now is in the County Board’s hands.

Aspects of the NextEra application must be finalized before the County Board can conduct its hearing, Buschow told audience members at Tuesday’s meeting.

“We’ve got to have NextEra have their final application done right,” he said. “They are working on that.”

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2014/12/18/proposed-wind-farm-still-up-in-the-air/