Some proposed wind power developments in Minnesota could benefit western Wisconsin and also should spark leaders in that region to consider more such projects.
Illinois wind developers are pitching a $220 million plan to generate 100 megawatts of electricity in Winona County across the Mississippi River by building up to 67 wind turbines on two ridge tops along Interstate 90.
The proposal, hailed by Winona County leaders as a potential spark plug for wind development in the area, is part of a larger wind-turbine plan to generate 200 mega-watts in Winona and Olmsted counties by as early as 2011.
Some western Wisconsin communities, including La Crosse, could also get some of their energy from the project.
Wind projects usually face opposition for these reasons — environmental if the turbines are in flyways or other sensitive areas, aesthetic reasons because people just don’t like how the turbines look, and intrusion of the transmission lines that transport the electricity from the turbines to plants and eventually customers.
This proposal’s fate might be linked to the latter. EcoEnergy, the developer of the proposed wind farm also has pitched a 400-megawatt, $850 million wind farm near Harmony, Minn. The company wants to cluster the proposed turbines in an area east of St. Charles, Minn., and another area south of Winona, stretching from the Rushford I-90 exit to Ridgeway.
Transmission lines would run through the I-90 corridors as much as possible. For example, the line that would serve La Crosse would connect that community with Rochester, Minn.
Opposition to transmission lines often is understandable. The lines can eat up farm land and at times run through environmentally sensitive areas.
But, in this case, it looks like EcoEnergy is trying to contain the turbines and transmission lines along corridors that already have been developed for the interstate.
The company also is going out of its way to meet with landowners very early in the process. A recent meeting drew more than 100 people.
Winona County Board Chairman Dwayne Voegeli told the La Crosse Tribune that local landowners could benefit if they partner with the company to gain a large ownership stake in the turbines,
“If local people benefit from them, you’re going to see a lot more local acceptance,” Voegeli told the Trib.
Other officials in eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin should keep an eye on the EcoEnergy project. If the company lives up to its promises and does the project with the environment and landowners concerns adequately addressed, other wind projects in other areas of the region should be pursued. It’s a natural since many of the high areas of the region consistently get wind.
No alternative energy is without its negatives. That’s also true for wind. Nobody wants to see turbines and transmission lines on the bluffs above the Great River Road, for example. What you would gain in energy would be negated by harming the aesthetics and environment that attract tourists to that road and the area it runs through.
But, to concentrate projects alone the interstate, and other established corridors for rail transportation, etc. could make a lot of sense. It’s time we pursue alternatives in several forms — wind, solar, biomass and others — work to minimize the negatives and start moving the region and entire country in a different direction on energy production.
