January 1, 2015
Indiana

Turbines blow over

Karla Bowsher | Chronicle-Tribune | January 1, 2015 | www.chronicle-tribune.com

As the new year began, the time window for E.ON to expand a wind farm in Grant County ended.

E.ON Climate & Renewables had until the last day of 2014 to start pouring concrete for the second phase of its Wildcat Wind Farm, which would have added wind turbines in western Grant County and neighboring Howard County. The deadline was part of the terms of the green-energy company’s economic development agreement with the commissioners.

“It’s not going to happen,” Commissioner Mike Burton, R-District, said after Tuesday’s Grant County Board of Commissioners meeting.

A media release issued by E.ON in August stated the company was “suspending development” but did not specify for how long.

As of Wednesday morning, E.ON had not informed the commissioners of plans to start construction or otherwise communicated with the commissioners or their attorney, Burton said.

County Area Planning Director Steve Niblick said his office had not heard from E.ON in a couple of months. The company would have had to submit a detailed application prior to construction, and Niblick’s office had not received anything as of Wednesday morning, he said.

Around the end of 2013, the company filed a permit to build a substation about laid fencing and a gravel roadway for the substation, located near the Pipe Creek stone quarry, Niblick said, but he believed that was more for their federal tax credits.

“That really was not part of the project,” he said.

Expansion of Wildcat Wind Farm in Grant County won’t happen

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2015/01/01/turbines-blow-over/