By Brandi Watters, Herald Bulletin Staff Writer
ANDERSON — It all depends on 11 miles per hour.
A few variances in the wind speed near Elwood could determine whether a windmill farm comes to Madison County.
E.ON, a wind energy company that recently put up 600 wind turbines in Texas, has approached Madison County officials about the northwestern section of Madison County north of Elwood, showing interest in building a windmill farm at the location.
During Tuesday’s meeting of the Madison County Planning Commission, the board voted on an ordinance to regulate the use of land for windmill farms.
Cory Wilson, county planning director, explained that it will take E.ON two years of monitoring wind speeds before it will make a decision about building a farm north of Elwood, but the county wants to be ready for that day.
E.ON is considering building between 130 and 300 windmills. The windmills would also be located on land that straddles Tipton, Grant and Howard counties in the northwest portion of Madison County.
Using a template from an ordinance in Benton County, which now has hundreds of wind turbines, the council established rules about setbacks, tower heights, road repairs and the variances needed for a windmill farm in the county.
This, Commissioner Paul Wilson said, does not mean the county supports the windmill farm. “The design of this ordinance is not to attract or detract windmills.”
Commissioner John Richwine argued that the regulations in the ordinance might even make Madison County less attractive to windmill developers due to its strict guidelines to protect county residents.
A permit to erect a meteorological tower to measure wind speeds was approved by the county last week, Cory Wilson said. It will be 200 feet tall, will resemble a radio tower, and will be placed at the intersection of Indiana 13 and County Road 1400.
Over the next two years, E.ON will monitor the data and decide whether northern Madison County and its surrounding areas are suitable for a wind farm.
Rodney Flora of E.ON said a main consideration for the company is the terrain. In order for optimum wind speed, the terrain needs to be flat, or table-top, as the industry calls it.
“We still do not know whether we have a project or not,” Flora said. The wind speeds will determine if the project can happen, but the response from the community will have a lot to do with whether or not the project moves forward.
During Tuesday’s commission meeting, 10 residents living in the affected area questioned commissioners about the farm.
Chad Kelich was frustrated with county officials for not doing more to notify residents about the possible wind farm. “If the farm actually comes to be, there needs to be more public info than what there has been.”
A public hearing regarding the ordinance was already held and proper notice was given to the public via a legal notice in the newspaper, Cory Wilson said.
Flora said public hearings will be held for residents if the company decides to move forward with the project.
Officials from E.ON have already approached land owners in the affected area about leasing land for the placement of windmills.
Flora said the turbines will likely take up one-third of an acre per tower and said most land owners make $14,000 per year, per tower for leasing the land.
With an estimated 130 t0 300 wind turbines proposed, that could mean $4.2 million a year injected into the local economy.
Not everyone is excited about the prospect.
David Johnston lives in the area and supports wind energy, but doesn’t want it in his backyard. “Those things are large. They are loud and they are ugly.”
Johnston said he visited the windmill farm in Benton County and said the sound of the turbines spinning would be annoying for his family. He described the sound as an “uneven thrumming” and compared it to the spinning of rotors on an airplane. “It does cause some degradation of our quality of life in the country.”
Cory Wilson also visited the wind farm and said the sound of wind blowing through the corn was louder than the turbines.
Johnston rebutted that the sound of corn rustling in the wind cannot be compared to the mechanical sound of spinning turbines.
While he’s happy that some of his neighbors who own large portions of land may make money off the farm, Chad Kelich wishes the residential land owners without space to lease were taken into consideration. “The company that’s proposing to do this is only talking to large land owners, not residential ones.”
“They skipped over the little guy,” he said, explaining that he has nothing to gain from the windmills, but will be forced to tolerate them if they come to the area.
“The big property owners gain and the residential don’t,” resident Scott Poore said.
Flora said the farm could help many in the local area. The farm would likely create 300 to 400 temporary construction jobs while the turbines are being erected and between eight and 30 permanent jobs could be created.
Though some talks are already occurring between E.ON and land owners and the debate is beginning to heat up, Flora said there are still two years to go before any turbines arrive in Madison County. “We are basically in the very beginning stages of this.”
The ordinance recommendation will now be forwarded to the county commissioners who will review the measure at their March 17 meeting at 10 a.m.
Contact Brandi Watters: 640-4847; brandi.watters@heraldbulletin.com
