Wind turbine project approved

After more than four years of research and community debate, the Clinton County Board of Commissioners voted 5-2 Tuesday to grant a special use permit to a Chicago company that wants to build a $123 million wind-turbine project to generate electricity.

Although turnouts of about 150 residents – most of them opposed to the project -- had been common at planning commission and township board meetings over the past year, barely 50 people attended the county board meeting, which started at 9 a.m. Only four local residents – two in favor and two against – made public comments.

Bob Boettger, a farmer who has agreed to host eight of the proposed 39 turbines on his land, described the project as “something our community can be proud of when it’s completed.” He said it had benefited from the extensive review process.

Ken Wieber, a farmer who has fought the project at every step, compared the approval process to watching a traffic crash develop in slow motion over several years. He challenged commissioners to recognize what he said was growing evidence of adverse health effects related to wind turbines.

Among the commissioners, only Adam Stacey commented. He described the local-government review as the most fascinating and most frustrating public process he’d ever been involved in. Three weeks ago he had said he would vote against the permit and he followed through on Tuesday.

Project developer Tim Brown said he was grateful to secure permit approval but said it was too early to discuss what would happen next. The turbines are proposed for location across Bengal, Dallas and Essex townships, all of which have approved special ordinances more restrictive than the county.

Industrias Metalurgicas Pescarmona SA, the Argentinean wind-turbine maker, hasn’t been paid by Brazil’s state-controlled energy company Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras SA (ELET6) for power from a project that began feeding electricity to the grid in June 2011.

The turbine supplier’s Energimp unit is owed 250 million reais ($125.9 million) for selling electricity from its 222- megawatt wind farm in the southern state of Santa Catarina, Jose Luis Menghini, vice president of Impsa, as the Mendoza, Argentina-based company is known, said today in a telephone interview from Sao Paulo.

The utility known as Eletrobras delayed payments after Brazil power regulator Agencia Nacional de Energia Eletrica established new compensation rules in June, Menghini said. He said the turbine company is compliant with the revised policies and is getting impatient.

“They want everything to be perfect.” Menghini said. “I understand that preoccupation. They have a responsibility to do this. But we have a responsibility to our shareholders.”

The 1.3 billion-real wind project is enrolled in a government renewable-energy support program called Proinfa that pays developers a set rate for electricity that rises with inflation, he said. Eletrobras is investigating “inconsistencies” in documents provided by Impsa, a spokesman for the utility who didn’t want to be named because of company policy, said today in an e-mail.

Impsa was last asked to submit documentation for its projects Jan. 10 and did so Jan. 16, Menghini said. “We’ve got no problem with Aneel” or the local environmental authority, he said. “The hold up is due to Eletrobras.”

Energimp is 55 percent owned by Impsa and 45 percent owned by Fundo de Investimento do Fundo de Garantia do Tempo de Servico, Brazil’s state-run severance and disability fund, he said.