Windfarms Sprout Along Ohio-Michigan Border

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Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Call it the Windy Corner: Wind generation projects with a total investment value (TIV) exceeding $3 billion are being constructed or developed on rural land along the northwestern Ohio-southeastern Michigan border. If all proposed windfarms in the area are built, they will add more than 1,650 megawatts (MW) of new generating capacity. This gust of wind generation project activity stems from good-quality wind resources, ready access to transmission lines and renewable portfolio standards (RPS) in Ohio and Michigan.

Wind projects are being developed by large renewable developers like Iberdrola Renewables Incorporated (Portland, Oregon), a unit of Iberdrola SA (MCE:IBE) (Bilbao, Spain); Invenergy LLC (Chicago, Illinois); and Horizon Wind Energy LLC (Houston, Texas), a unit of Energias de Portugal SA (PINK:EDPFY) (Lisbon, Portugal). But smaller developers like Beebe Community Wind LLC (Ithaca, Michigan) and St. George's Renewable Energies LLC (Wakeman, Ohio) also are developing large wind projects in the area.

Iberdrola's Blue Creek Windfarm is a $600 million, 304-MW project that is scheduled to come online by the end of this year. Company spokesman Paul Copelman said this is the company's largest wind project to date. The company has contracted to sell about 100 MW of its electricity to First Energy Solutions Corporation (Akron, Ohio), a unit of FirstEnergy Corporation (NYSE:FE) (Akron, Ohio), and is seeking buyers for the remaining 204 MW.

The three-phase Timber Road Windfarm being developed by Horizon Energy LLC is a 198-MW, $527 million project taking shape in Paulding County, Ohio. Phase II began operating this past July, while phases I and III are scheduled to begin operating in late 2013. American Electric Power Company Incorporated (NYSE:AEP) (Columbus, Ohio) has contracted to take about 99 MW of electricity from Timber Road Phase II.

Other significant wind projects under construction or being developed in the area include:

• The Tesla Windfarm, a three-phase, 396-MW project being developed in Richland County, Ohio. The project, being developed by St. George's Renewable Energies LLC, has a TIV of $695 million and is scheduled to kick off in mid-2013 and come online over the 2013-15 period.


• Beebe Community Wind LLC is developing a 300-MW, $690 million wind project in Gatriot County, Michigan. The project is scheduled to break ground during the second quarter of 2012 and be operating by yearend 2012.


• Also in Gratiot County, Invenergy LLC is building a 213-MW windfarm with a TIV of $490 million that is scheduled to begin operating early next year.


• Duke Energy Generation Services LLC, a unit of Duke Energy Corporation (NYSE:DUK) (Charlotte, North Carolina) is developing the 100-MW Hillsdale Windfarm in Hillsdale County, Michigan. The $230 million project is scheduled to kick off in mid-2012 and be operating one year later.


• In Eaton County, Michigan, Air Energy TCI Incorporated (Montreal, Quebec) is developing a $160 million, 79-MW windfarm, Sebewa, which is scheduled to kick off late next year and be operating in mid-2013.


• The two-phase, 62-MW Hog Creek Windfarm is scheduled to be fully operational by the end of next year.

"Wind has installed 35% of the new [electrical] generation across the nation over the last four years, more than coal and nuclear combined, and second only to natural gas," Ellen Carey, a spokesperson for the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) (Washington, D.C.), told the Toledo Blade. Through long-term power purchase agreements, she said, windfarms can sell electricity to utilities for 20 years at a known cost: "That's a great hedge" for utilities.

State renewable energy mandates are driving the demand for windpower in this rural part of the country: Ohio utilities are required to have renewable energy account for 25% of their electricity by 2025. In Michigan, utilities are required to have renewables account for 10% of their electricity by 2015.

The development has created thousands of construction jobs and provided landowners and farmers in this economically challenged area a new income stream from lease payments. Landowners reportedly receive $500 per turbine per month for 20 years when they lease their land to wind developers. Local towns and counties also benefit from fees paid by developers.

Cory Cantwell, a development manager at Air Energy, told the Blade that while northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan may not have the sustained winds of the Great Plains, its proximity to the existing electrical grid and the RPS standards set by Ohio and Michigan make windfarms there a smart bet. "The lay of the land is suitable for turbines," he said.

Wind is providing a big financial boost to northwestern Ohio farmers, Clair Dudgeon, county commissioner for Van Wert County, told the Akron Beacon Journal: "In a way, we got three big crops here now: corn, soybeans and wind. ... What's happening here is big."

"Ohio has become one of the best places in the country to make investments in wind," Horizon Energy spokeswoman Erin Bowser told the paper.

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