Story originally printed in the Winona Daily News or online at www.winonadailynews.com

Published - Monday, August 04, 2008

This week in government: Board to ponder wind power

By Mark Sommerhauser | Winona Daily News

Commercial wind power is slated to arrive in Fillmore County, Minn., while Trempealeau County, Wis., has rebuffed it so far. Now it appears Winona County may be the next municipality to decide whether — or how — to embrace wind power.

A Wiscoy Township man wants to erect a 60-meter-high temporary tower that would collect weather data to determine whether a commercial wind turbine is feasible on his property. Winona County commissioners on Tuesday will consider the request, already endorsed by the county’s planning commissioners and planning department.

Kelley O’Neill wants to build the tower in conjunction with EcoEnergy Wind, an Illinois company that announced plans last month to build a 266-turbine wind farm near Preston, Minn.

O’Neill’s request is the first of its kind in Winona County, planners said. But the request “is a sign of things to come,” board chair Dwayne Voegeli said. Voegeli said corporate wind developers — having already secured some of Minnesota’s most prolific wind-power sites in the state’s southwestern corner — now are moving east.

O’Neill’s request comes as the county’s wind ordinance, along with its other zoning laws, is being overhauled. The county’s current wind ordinance will be extensively revised in the new version, said county environmental technician Lew Overhaug.

The introduction of corporate wind power created controversy in Trempealeau County in 2007, when commissioners there responded to development inquiries by passing what some described as the strictest wind ordinance in the nation.

AgWind Energy Partners, a company that tried unsuccessfully to build a wind farm in Trempealeau County, has said the ordinance violates Wisconsin law.

Voegeli — who has backed a plan by the county Economic Development Authority to build a wind turbine — hopes the county’s new laws will welcome wind development. Special attention should be paid — either through tax credits or other incentives — to encourage local and regionally backed wind development, he said.

“I want to make Winona County a place that is turbine-friendly and environmentally friendly,” Voegeli said. “It need not be either/or.”

In addition to the O’Neill site, Voegeli said developers have identified other promising wind sites in Winona County. Landowners should be careful, he warned, to get independent, expert evaluations of their property before signing away its wind rights.

“Sometimes landowners and farmers give away too much too soon,” Voegeli said.

Contact Mark Sommerhauser at (507) 453-3514 or msommerhauser@winonadailynews.com