Henry County residents visit wind farm in Illinois

DECATUR, Illinois — About a dozen Henry County residents attended a wind farm tour offered by RWE Renewables to Decatur, Illinois, Monday to explore firsthand a topic that has been hotly debated in recent weeks.

Traveling three and a half hours to central Illinois, residents toured the wind farm which RWE Wind Development Manager Matthew Spaccapaniccia stated is similar to the operation they are considering in Northern Henry County.

The tour included the inside of the operation site, an up-close view of a turbine blade, an exploration of the inside of an active turbine, and a look at the power substation for the farm.

“There are going to be a lot of similarities to the Henry County size of project, but you’ll also hear a lot of differences,” Spaccapaniccia told the group.

According to Spaccapaniccia, Radford Run, the Decatur wind farm, entered operations in 2017 with its 305.8-megawatt project consisting of 139 Vestas 2.2 megawatts turbines. The Radford Run project required just over 28,000 acres.

Comparatively, the possible project in Henry County would consist of approximately 60-90 turbines generating 300 megawatts. The reason for fewer turbines with similar megawatts comes from the type of turbines now available.

“Maybe we’ll have a 5-megawatt machine by the time the project [goes] into construction operation,” Spaccapaniccia explained. “Then the 90 would be on the lower end of machines around a 3.4 Vestas machine.”

This could mean larger wind turbines in Henry County, although Spaccapaniccia says the goal isn’t bigger turbines, but more effective ones, and the size will depend on which model RWE selects.

As the tour commenced Monday, Henry County residents explored wind turbines very similar to the type RWE would propose for a project in Henry County.

“One of the things a lot of folks have heard us say in Henry County meetings is we are strongly considering Vestas turbines,” RWE Outreach Manager Julie Drennen said. “So, remember the ones here are vestas. So, very similar, just smaller megawatt.”

“I haven't been up [to a] four-megawatt machine,” Radford Run Lead Technician Mike Flagal said. “They're probably a decent bit bigger than what we've got here.”

When the group traveled the short distance out to see the turbines firsthand, the sound of the turbines themselves was hard to hear due in part to a particularly windy day. At the 1,760-feet mark, which is the setback for occupied buildings, the sound could not be heard over the strong wind at all.

Moving considerably closer to Henry County’s setback for public roads and power lines, the distinct whooshing sound nearly broke through the wind. Many of the visitors took off their safety helmets as close as permissible to verify for themselves if the sound was distinguishable above the averaged 40 mile per hour winds. Most could not easily hear the noise.

“This is RWE’s largest single-phase project, and it was also the largest single-phase project in Illinois across the industry in 2017,” Spaccapaniccia said.

According to Spaccapaniccia, the ballpark acreage RWE is looking to obtain for the potential project in Henry County would be similar to Radford Run at about 30,000 acres.

The Radford Run wind farm project will result in approximately $84 million in projected lease payments for landowners and $46 million in local tax revenue over the course of 30 years.

Spaccapaniccia anticipates a similar project in Henry County would bring in approximately $133 million in taxes and $77 million in landowner payments for the proposed 35 years of the project.

According to Spaccapaniccia, the implementation of the Redford Run project resulted in RWE spending approximately $20 million for upgrading more than 80 miles worth of roads within the project area. While getting the project up and running, RWE created approximately 300 short term construction jobs and approximately one-dozen long term operation jobs as managers and tech making up the Radford Run operations crew.

In his overview of the Radford Run project, Spaccapaniccia stated over $16.5 million were spent on locally sourced construction materials and $2.3 million was spent on consumables. Additionally, Spaccapaniccia stated over $13.1 million was spent throughout local business and local subcontracts that performed work.

Spaccapaniccia estimates a project in Henry County would require close to 300 construction workers for about 12 months. Following the construction phase, RWE would employ between six to 12 full-time staff on site at the project.

According to Flagal, the staff at Radford Run spend their days performing routine maintenance and responding to any problems that arise. Their operation center also utilizes multiple systems to notify them of changes to the turbines, wind speeds, weather, and any other information necessary for running the wind farm successfully.

“Our system would show me any faulty turbines in yellow,” Flagal explained as he showed the group the screens they monitor. “We do have 24-hour surveillance of the park. That's all done in Austin, Texas. So, if we're not here watching it someone else is if somebody there were a major event in the park, I'm getting phone calls in the middle of night.”

According to Flagal, turning off a turbine can be done in a matter of seconds for any reason. This was demonstrated at the base of one of their turbines as the group explored the inside the machine.

When people got closer to the machine, Flagal sent a tech ahead to shut down the blades for added safety upon approach. Within seconds, the shutdown was evident. Just as quickly, when individuals were at a safe distance, the blade started back up.

Currently the Henry County Supervisors are still accepting opinions and information from the public as they consider county ordinances pertaining to renewable energy. They are compiling this information and presenting it to the county Planning and Zoning Commission to consider recommendations for the ordinance.

The Planning and Zoning Commission will meet Tuesday, March 12 at 6 p.m. at the Henry County Courthouse for a work session open to the public to discuss possible changes for the ordinance.

The supervisors continue to encourage community input stating that the work session is likely not the only meeting Planning and Zoning will have on this topic. Those emails can be sent to supervisors@henrycountyiowa.us

“They can take as long as they need or they feel that they need,” Greg Moeller said at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting.”

“Yes, we need to be moving forward,” Supervisor Marc Lindeen commented. “But we need to be moving forward in an orderly fashion. We’re not in a rush, but we’re not going to just be idle.”

Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com