U.S. senator tours Blue Creek Wind Farm

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) got a close-up view of local wind turbines and learned about the science — and just as importantly, the economics — of wind energy production during a visit to Van Wert County on Thursday.

Neil Voje, plant manager for Iberdrola Renewables’ Blue Creek Wind Farm, told the senator that, coincidentally, solar energy is also the catalyst for wind energy production, since the uneven heating of the earth’s surface by the sun is what ultimately causes the development of winds — and the opportunity to harness those winds to create renewable energy.

Senator Brown asked a number of questions related to wind energy production as he toured Iberdrola’s production facility on Fife Road north of Van Wert Thursday afternoon and later got a chance to see one of the 100-meter-tall wind turbines up close.

The senator also talked about the importance of the Blue Creek Wind Farm to the local and state economies.

“The Blue Creek Wind Farm is not only Ohio’s biggest wind farm, but it is bringing jobs to western Ohio, helping fund local schools and cities and providing a source of renewable energy for thousands of homes and businesses,” Brown said, while adding that a partnership between Iberdrola and Vantage Career Center is also training workers for jobs in the wind and solar energy fields.

The local educational partnership mirrors a model Brown promotes that provides incentives for sector-based partnerships to ensure that workforce training programs are developed with industry input and tailored to meet companies’ workforce needs.

“We are very proud of our longstanding partnership with Vantage,” Voje said. “Last year, we were able to institute a veterans scholarship program at Vantage to help veterans and their families train for jobs in the renewable energy sector.”

Also on hand for Senator Brown’s tour was Vantage Adult Education Director Pete Prichard, who was instrumental in helping develop Vantage’s new energy education programs.

The local wind farm includes 115 wind turbines in Van Wert County and 37 in Paulding County for a total of 152 turbines, with enough wind energy from each turbine to power 500 homes. Landowners receive approximately $8,000 a year for each turbine through 20-year lease contracts that are also renewable at the end of that period.

Despite the success of the Blue Creek Wind Farm, which provides $2 million in lease payments to area landowners and another $2.7 million in PILOT (payments in lieu of taxes) payments over a 20-year period to local government and schools, further wind farm development has been stymied by legislation pushed through the Ohio General Assembly that did away with tax benefits for wind farm creation and increased setbacks for individual wind turbines.

Voje told Senator Brown that, if current legislation was in place when the Blue Creek Wind Farm was under development, the wind farm’s 152 wind turbines would have been reduced to just 12. He added that current regulations have already had a significant impact on a plan to build 250 more wind turbines in Van Wert and Paulding County.

The Iberdrola plant manager said a 100-turbine project in Paulding County project is no longer under development, while Iberdrola has reduced the number of wind turbines slated for Van Wert County as it waits in hopes the General Assembly will provide more financially realistic wind energy regulations.

Efforts to do just that are underway, with State Representatives Tony Burkley and Tim Brown recently introducing House Bill 190, which would create more realistic setback regulations and provide more incentives for renewable energy production in Ohio.

On the national level, Brown has long been a supporter of wind energy and was a promoter of the critical “1603” clean energy grant program, which provides financing for wind farm projects. The senator was also a lead sponsor of the American Renewable Energy Jobs Act, legislation that ensures that grant money only goes to companies that preserve and create jobs in the United States.

In addition to the wind farm tour, Senator Brown also viewed flooding in Paulding County and met with fellow Democrats in that county.