More Wind Turbines Near BG Planned
Bowling Green Sentinel-Tribune
May 11, 2007

Wind generating capacity nearly seven times that in place at the Wood County Landfill could be a reality near Bowling Green by the end of 2009.

American Municipal Power-Ohio and JW Great Lakes Wind LLC of Cleveland Thursday announced a partnership for the development of nearly 50 megawatts of new wind generation. The four wind turbines at the landfill have a maximum capacity of 7.2 megawatts.

A memorandum of understanding between the two organizations indicates the new generation would be built near the existing AMP-Ohio/Green Mountain Energy Wind Farm at the landfill. In the coming months the organizations plan to undertake a project analysis to determine the economic feasibility of any additional wind generation.

Director of BG Utilities Kevin Maynard said this morning that Bowling Green has a leg up on other sites because it has been proven here that wind turbines can be successful and infrastructure to place the output on the power grid. He expected to learn additional details today.

Maynard indicated it is also helpful that Bowling Green and Wood County officials and residents have been supportive of wind and other forms of renewable energy generation.

"Ohio's public power communities are leaders in terms of the deployment of renewable generation resources in the state," said AMP-Ohio President and CEO Mark Gerken. "We are committed to development of wind as part of a diversified generation resources portfolio and we're challenging the old belief that wind generation won't work in the Midwest."

Bryan Starry, director of project development for JWGL, said providing long-term clean energy at a competitive price and having a positive local economic impact is important to the company.

"We look forward to working in partnership with AMP-Ohio and its member communities. Projects of this type will have long-ranging positive impacts on the municipalities as well as the state as a whole," he said.

In late April the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado released a new wind map for Ohio indicating that a large portion of the state is ripe for wind development.

The new map is based on turbines with a hub height of 100 meters. The hub height on the BG wind turbines is 78 feet. Dennis Elliot, principal scientist for wind assessment at the Colorado lab said in April that tapping into a small portion of Ohio's wind has the potential for taking care of 10 to 20 percent of the state's electrical needs.
The landfill project is owned by Bowling Green and nine other AMP-Ohio members. Cuyahoga Falls owns the second largest portion of the project, with Edgerton, Elmore, Monroeville, Montpelier, Napoleon, Oberlin, Pioneer and Wadsworth also involved.

Bowling Green's Board of Public Utilities has indicated its support for additional long-term renewable energy projects. It is also involved in obtaining additional baseload power supplies, including exploration of a new coal-fired plant in conjunction with AMP-Ohio.

A variety of permit applications have been filed in regards to the coal unit, which would be located in Meigs County in the southeast portion of the state near the source of the coal.

Gerken said permitting is one of the primary hurdles remaining for the project. If the estimated $2.3 billion coal plant moves forward it would be expected to supply more than 400,000 customers in five states.