E.ON Climate and Renewables hopes to establish a test tower southeast of Swayzee within the next two months. If results are satisfactory, the company could establish a 60,000-acre wind farm that stretches across four counties, including Grant, within the next three years.
Andy Melka, the assistant development manager for E.ON, said the project is still in the planning stages, and it will be two to three years before Grant County residents see any significant construction.
In the meantime, the company is planning an 80-meter-high test tower on County Road 600 West, about 1.5 miles south of U.S. 35.
Melka said the purpose of the meteorological tower is to establish whether towers in southwest Grant County can sustain an average wind speed in excess of 17 mph about 200 to 250 feet above the ground.
"Preliminary studies look like it should be in excess of that," Melka said.
The tower will provide detailed on-site measurements about wind speeds, Melka said.
"This tower takes wind speed data at three different levels above the ground," he said.
Melka said E.ON is now talking to landowners in southwestern Grant County, as well as in Madison, Howard and Tipton counties, to procure land leases for the potential wind farm.
The Herald-Bulletin of Anderson reported last week that the Madison County Planning Commission voted on an ordinance to regulate the use of wind farms in that county.
The Grant County commissioners recently passed an ordinance regulating the use of the farms in this county. At the time, two companies - E.ON and Horizon - expressed interest in testing for a potential farm in the area.
"We know technology has changed, and we expect attitudes to change," Ken Ellis, county area plan director, told the commissioners at the time.
In total, the company's planned farm could stretch across 60,000 acres in the four counties, with about one-third of that land in Grant County, Melka said.
The primary function of a wind farm is to harness the power of the wind, convert it to electricity and sell that electricity to local power companies.
Tim Eckerle of the Grant County Economic Growth Council thinks the development of the wind industry in the county can help develop the area as a leader in a field in which he sees long-term viability.
"It's not a perfect solution, but it's an important component of a long-term energy solution," he said of wind energy.
Eckerle has worked with people in the wind farm industry and said many officials in those companies have been impressed with the county being proactive in developing its wind ordinance.
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