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About 30 landowners met with the new owners of the proposed Walleye Wind Farm in western Rock County on Dec. 5 at Springbrooke Events in Beaver Creek.
About a dozen representatives from NextEra Energy Resources of Juno Beach, Florida, were on hand for the open house-type setting where attendees asked questions.
“We were very pleased to have the chance to introduce ourselves to the Rock County community,” said Mike Weich, NextEra director of development.
NextEra purchased the proposed 100-megawatt Walleye Wind Farm earlier this year from Renewable Energy Systems of Broomfield, Colorado, and recently closed the sale on seven existing wind turbines in Beaver Creek Township.
The existing turbines, 11 megawatts of power, will be decommissioned and incorporated into the proposed wind farm.
With the purchase, the new proposed Walleye Wind Farm is 111 megawatts in size, consisting of 36 turbines. Footprint of the farm includes the townships of Beaver Creek and Martin, as well as portions of Rose Dell, Springwater, Luverne and Mound.
Application to the state Public Utility Commission for a permit and certificate of need is planned for April 2020. The permit process may take up to a year to complete. Construction is planned for 2021.
Final design plans, including turbine locations, will be released this spring.
In the meantime, NextEra is opening an office on Main Street in Luverne and is planning other opportunities to meet people in the community.
“This open house was an opportunity for us to listen to landowners and leaders in the community, answer their questions, and share information about the many benefits of Walleye Wind,” Weich said.
Benefits include clean energy, good jobs, landowner payments and additional tax revenue to support local roads, schools and services.
At the open house, question topics ranged from NextEra and their experience with other renewable energy projects (they are currently completing a project in Pipestone County) to whether agreements with the previous developer will be honored (yes), and what the next steps in the project will be.
Currently a website (www.walleyewind.com) has been developed that answers questions about the company, existing wind farms and the Walleye project.