Small Town News

Supervisors give support to Luther wind turbine project

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A conditional-use permit application for a Luther College wind energy project was approved Monday by the Winneshiek County Board of Supervisors.

Luther plans to install a wind turbine on property owned by Janelle Pavlovec off the Highway 52/Madi-son Road intersection by June 2010. The project will achieve one of the college's major sustainability goals, which is to reduce campus greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent while reducing campus electricity consumption, according to Luther President Richard Torgerson.

The supervisors imposed several conditions before issuing their approval. One requires the college to reach a land lease and liability agreement between the college, Wiltgen Construction, which operates a quarry near the turbine site, Wiltgen's subcontractors and Pavlovec.

Last week, the Winneshiek County Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously recommended approval of the wind turbine application.

"It has been most encouraging to find the level of interest and support for this project and the excellent cooperation we received from the county in seeking the conditional-use permit," Torgerson commented after Monday's Board meeting.

Won't interfere

The turbine is planned for a site located as far north as possible from the active quarry, and will not curtail the quarry operation in any way, Torgerson stated in a letter to the supervisors.

Once built, the turbine will be in view of the Luther campus.

"The project will also serve to educate students and the community about the potential of renewable energy, wind energy in particular," Torgerson said.

The location was selected because it has a good wind resource to power the turbine. The land immediately to the north of the site has been placed in a permanent conservation easement and cannot be developed in the future. The land to the east of the turbine site is owned by the state and serves as a buffer for Highway 52.

One of the supervisors' conditions requires the turbine to be at least 1,000 feet away from the nearest residential property.

The supervisors' conditions also require the turbine be 1.65 megawatt or smaller, a rotor diameter of 82 meters or smaller and a tower hub height of 80 meters or lower.

Two options

The turbine is expected to generate about a third of the electrical energy used by the college each year.

Luther officials are currently weighing the costs and benefits of two transmission options. One would be to bring the power back to the campus where the power would either be consumed on campus or sold to Alliant Energy at Luther's point-of-service delivery.

The second option would involve selling the power to Alliant at an interconnection point at the base of the Nor-Ski Hill.



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© 2009 The Decorah Journal Decorah, Iowa. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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