By Marilee Johnson, News Editor, South Platte Sentinel

The Peetz area “wind farm” is slated to jump into phase three of construction which will nearly double the amount of electricity already being generated at the site.

Scheduled for consideration by the Logan County Planning Commission next month is an amended conditional use permit application that will increase both the number of turbines in the northeast portion of the county and the amount of wind power that will be generated. A public hearing will be held Sept. 9 at 7 p.m. in the Logan County Courthouse.

Florida Power and Light (FPL) Energy is expanding its project in two stages by PWEC, llc, and Northern Colorado Wind Energy, llc, east of Peetz. The PWEC stage will include up to 100 wind turbines to generate approximately 150 megawatts of wind power and the Northern Colorado Wind stage will include up to 118 wind turbines for 175 megawatts of power.

The facilities in each of the two conditional use permit renewal areas will also include pad mount transformers, buried and overhead cable, substation, private gravel roads, meteorological towers, operations and maintenance facilities, related equipment and structures, rights-of-way, temporary batch plant and transmission line.

For phase three, current turbines technology available include either 1.5 megawatt generators with 80′ blades or 2.3 megawatt generators with 90′ blades. The technology type will determine the number and locations of turbines installed, up to 218, based on the topography and feasibility of transporting the turbine blades.

The current $700 million FPL wind center project represents the second largest wind facility in the country consisting of 267 turbines that generate 400 megawatts of electricity, sufficient to power 120,000 homes. Xcel Energy in Denver will buy 100% of the electricity under a long term contract.

In addition to the 267 permitted towers for FPL, there are currently an additional 32 towers built by EnXco and 40 towers built and in operation by Invenergy, bringing the current total of existing towers to 339 operating. The potential for the additional 218 towers for phase three of the FPL project, plus an additional 88 towers for Ridge Crest (EnXco), could bring the total build-out to 645 towers that would nearly span the width of Logan County along the Nebraska border.

“There has not been a group of projects of this magnitude in our community over it’s entire history,” said Logan County Planner Jim Neblett.

For phase one and two, Logan County received a one-time $4.16 million payment which included building permit fees and use taxes from FPL Energy. Construction of the first two phases of the wind center employed an estimated 300-350 temporary employees with 20 full time jobs upon completion.

The completed phase one and two project has an assessed valuation of $190 million. The county has received $4,788 in building permit fees and $10,789 in material taxes for each of the 267 towers.

Neblett credits the current wind projects with increasing the retail sales in Logan County since construction began in 2005. That’s when retail sales in the entire county jumped 17%. In 2006, sales increased 21% and then again 27% last year.

Prior to the beginning of construction, retail sales fell 1% between 2002 and 2003 and only increased 1% between 2003 and 2004.

With phase three about to begin, Neblett said, “There’s going to be a lot of construction going on next year too.”

In addition to the Peetz area project, another wind developer is planning a new wind farm north of Fleming, along the Fleming ridge. Neblett said the county hasn’t received a conditional use permit application for the project yet, but preliminary plans called for 60 turbines.

A public hearing is tentatively scheduled for Thurs., Sept. 4 at Sterling High School for the project which will include an update to the delivery line for the Western Area Power Administration power grid. The process is necessary, Neblett said, as the project involves a federal power corridor.

Filed under: In The News by LCEDC