Freeborn County wind farm facing first major regulatory vote

What could become Minnesota's largest wind farm is due to get its first big regulatory vote this week -- in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin's three-member regulatory commission is expected to vote in the next few days on a 32,500-acre wind farm project near Albert Lea in Freeborn County.

Wisconsin Power and Light Co., a subsidiary of Madison-based Alliant Energy, has proposed the more than $425 million project, which at full capacity could power more than 100,000 Wisconsin homes. Alliant is trying to meet state renewable energy mandates that call for 10 percent renewable energy by 2015. Alliant picked the Freeborn site because of the strong, persistent prairie winds, said Alliant Energy spokesman Steve Schultz.

Minnesota regulators will decide on the project by the end of the summer. The project, just north of Albert Lea, would consist of 122 wind turbines each standing 400 feet tall. The utility estimates it could raise more than $1 million in taxes and create two dozen jobs in Freeborn County. It would be the county's first major wind farm.

Initially the farm will generate 200 megawatts of electricity -- enough to power 50,000 homes -- but there is enough room on the site for the wind farm to expand and produce up to 400 megawatts of electricity, Schultz said.

If the proposal passes in Wisconsin and makes it through the Minnesota regulatory process, the wind farm could be fully operational by the end of 2010, Schultz predicted.

Still despite the country's push for more wind energy, the proposal is by no means guaranteed to pass. "We will bring a different level of scrutiny to this one," said David Boyd, chair of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission.

Public utility commissioners haven't decided how to handle the case yet. They could focus on the site in Freeborn County or they could open up a larger investigation that would affect the rest of the state, Boyd said.

"It's not that we're against wind, it's that they're putting it too close to people's homes," said Katie Troe, who formed Safe Wind in Freeborn County, the main group questioning the Alliant project.

But enforcing Troe's setback request could make it more difficult for power companies to meet new renewable energy standards looming on the horizon. Minnesota mandates that 25 percent of energy must be renewable by 2025.

"I could see [Troe's request] leaving some parcels of land unusable," Boyd said.

Mandating a "one size fits all" setback distance of 1,500 feet would be unreasonable, said Paul White, president of Project Resources Corporation, which designs wind farm projects.

But even with the concern, most people in Freeborn County approve of the wind farm development, county commissioner Glen Mathiason said.