September 12, 2019
Indiana

Wind energy company to present plans for wind farm

Balint Szalavari | WLFI | Sep 11, 2019 | www.wlfi.com

Wind farm developers are seeking public input for a possible wind farm in Clinton County. Developers at E.ON Energy will be hosting an open house Thursday to present these plans.

Developers will be hosting an open house at the Clinton County Fairgrounds. It will run from 5-9 PM Thursday evening. They’re hoping to gain support on their plans to bring a new wind farm to the county.

According to developers at E.On Energy, the plan would total a 250 million dollar investment to Clinton County.

“We’re talking about 35 to 52 turbines in the eastern half of the county,” said Director of Development Lael Eason.

The turbines would generate enough energy to power 50 thousand homes.

Developers are looking for public opinion about the plan.

“We are now wanting to come and have an open dialogue with the community and present our project and have a discussion on what a project can do to benefit the county,” said Eason.

According to Clinton County Commissioner Joshua Uitts, this is not the first plan he has seen wanting to bring a wind farm to the county.

“It’s an old topic here in Clinton County. You know it’s over ten years old. There’s been several different companies over the years, and the latest one is obviously the one that’s holding an open house,” said Uitts.

A moratorium has restricted wind farm development within the county for several years.

“There were several different pieces of legislature going through the state that would’ve affected any project here in Clinton County. So we felt the best course of action was to leave the moratorium imposed and just sit tight and see what happens,” said Uitts.

Uitts said several steps would still be required before any work could be done.

“The moratorium would have to be lifted by the county commissioners. The second thing that would have to happen is now we have an ordinance for wind farms that is almost three years old. So that would have to be looked at again before we could get anything going,” said Uitts.

But Eason said they cannot do anything without permission from county commissioners. Developers would only be able to present an application and go through the zoning process once the moratorium was lifted.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2019/09/12/wind-energy-company-to-present-plans-for-wind-farm/