Meteorological test tower approved
Gina Duwe of the Janesville Gazette reports on town board action:
MAGNOLIA TOWNSHIP-A permit approval Tuesday night allowed for the first step in bringing a wind farm to town.
About 50 residents attended a meeting to hear the town board vote 3-0 to grant a conditional-use permit to EcoEnergy of Beloit to install a weather tower at the northeast corner of County B and Highway 213.
The 197-foot tower will measure temperature and wind speeds for at least a year. The data collected will be shared with the town.
Gathering data from the tower is just the first step in determining if the township is suitable for a wind farm, EcoEnergy officials said.
Landowner Tom Drew agreed to have the tower on his land only after researching and visiting a wind farm.
“I like renewable energy, and I think it’ll be a good thing,” he said.
He likes that fact that it’s a local company exploring the idea, rather than a large company from somewhere like Chicago, he said.
EcoEnergy is a wind developer that’s working on projects throughout Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota. It has an office in Beloit and is a member of The MORSE Group, which includes specialty companies anchored in the electrical, energy and construction markets.
Plans for a wind farm are in a very early stage, and company officials would not commit to a number of turbines they’d like to install. Wind farms range from five to 50 turbines, they said.
A wind farm is contingent on agreements with landowners, results from the weather tower and a study on how much energy a transmission line south of Dorner Road could handle. That study could take nine months.
Only one resident raised a concern about wind turbines killing birds.
“If a wind farm did develop here, a lot of the predatory birds would be killed,” Bruce Foyer said.
But Tuesday’s meeting was meant only to approve a permit for a weather tower, not a wind turbine, one resident and town board member said.
“I think the town is getting ahead of itself … Any testimony on turbines should come up at a future time when they’re applying for a turbine (permit),” board member Ron Sloniker said. “I don’t see anything wrong with a test tower.”
Right now the focus is on educating the community about wind energy, said Gary Haltaufderheide, a wind project associate with EcoEnergy.
“It’s a long process and we want them to be comfortable,” he said.
The tower will go up in the next four to six weeks, company officials said.
