BELMONT — The developers of a proposed wind farm project in northwestern Lafayette and southwestern Iowa counties held an information session at the Belmont Convention Center July 29.

More than 20 employees of Pattern Energy of San Francisco answered questions from more than 100 attendees, including vocal opponents of the proposed 600-megawatt wind farm, some of whom came armed with a packet of 73 questions about the project.

The company has signed up more than 100 landowners at $4,500 per megawatt, with a minimum of 3 megawatts, per year for easements for the towers, with payments increasing 2% per year, according to company officials, for the project that is expected to cover 30,000 acres of land.

“This is one of the highest wind speed areas in the state” that is “transmission-enabled,” said project manager Phillip Ross, who works in Mineral Point. “A lot of people have concerns … we’re trying to be transparent … all we can do is put the facts out there.

“All we can do is get information out there, try to show them that we’re not some faceless Canadian company. We have dedicated experts in our field, and we’ve been doing this a long time.”

Pattern Wind developed the 54-megawatt Butler Ridge LLC Wind Farm in Dodge County and the 700-megawatt Heritage Prairie Renewable wind and solar farm in Kankakee and Livingston counties in Illinois, south of Chicago.

The ultimate fate of the project will lie with the state Public Service Commission, which approves wind energy projects of 100 or more megawatts. The PSC recently approved the Grant County Solar Farm in the towns of Harrison and Potosi and several smaller solar projects throughout Southwest Wisconsin.

Though project opponents claim that electricity use is decreasing, Ross said electric utilities are shutting down coal and natural gas power plants, requiring replacements.

“The load is not decreasing,” he said, adding that future estimates of utility use are usually revised upward as the future becomes the present. “You still need more energy sources because you’re retiring generation.”

Ross added that climate change that makes parts of the U.S. hotter could result in people moving to cooler climates, resulting in more home construction. 

“There is a need for all power solutions,” he said. “You need overlapping generation … you need to make sure you have power on at all times.”

Ross said a solution proposed by opponents, solar arrays for individual buildings, would require the building owners to install and maintain the solar panels. He said that would still be insufficient to provide electricity to meet anticipated demand.

Ross said to a questioner who seemed unconvinced there are “numerous health studies” that have proven no health effects. The turbines will be no louder than 45 decibels at 1,265 feet, and are required to be quieter at night, he said.

Uplands Wind construction is proposed for 2024, with the wind farm operational in 2025, depending on state Public Service Commission approval, as well as the fate of the Cardinal—Hickory Creek power line project, which would bring electricity from the wind farm to its end users. CHC is the target of one state and three federal lawsuits.

One purpose of Thursday’s event was to address what Ross called “misconceptions” of the proposed project, including claims of the number and heights of the turbines.

Ross said the company has not determined how many turbines, nor what kind of turbines, the project will use, and that probably won’t be determined until the end of 2022, the company’s goal to submit its application to the PSC.

One of the posters at the presentation listed a “modern turbine” as generating 3 to 6 megawatts of electricity, with towers anywhere from 575 to 900 feet from blade tip to the ground, including blade ground clearance, the height of the hub, and the length of the three blades.

The company claims the project will employ 450 to 600 construction workers for the one to two years construction would take, with another 12 to 16 employees to operate the wind farm.

The company also projects an average $2.4 million per year going to communities in the area of the project, with a Community Benefits Program to contribute to “local initiatives and community-based organizations,” according to Pattern Wind literature.

As for the extent to which a CHC delay could affect the project, Ross said, “We have plans in place, and we can pivot if we need to,” and the company would “try to make it work” if CHC ultimately wasn’t built.

More information on the project is available at www.uplandswind.com. 

Those who attended found upon their departure cards on their windshields referring to the opponents’ website, no-uplands.com, and their claimed footprint of the project, at bit.ly/uplands-m.