Christina M. Seiler, The Rochester Sentinel News Editor

Wind energy developers are looking at Fulton County.

Three commercial wind farm firms have expressed an interest in the county, said Commissioner Roger Rose.

The developers: Community Energy, Invenergy and NextEra Energy, Rose said.

Fulton County Commissioners discussed the situation this week, but only briefly.

Commissioner Mark Rodriguez suggested the county should do what it can to help residents that may be involved.

Rose said he believes the county should sit back and wait, because wind farm developers will come forward if they choose to proceed here.

When a wind development company is exploring new territory it installs a meteorological tower - called a met tower - with anemometers to measure wind speed and wind vanes to measure wind. The instruments are placed on booms at varying heights. Data is recorded for later analysis.

According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Fulton County's wind speed averages about seven meters per second at a height of 80 meters, with the highest wind speeds in the far southwest corner of the county in Wayne Township.

Rose believes Invenergy already has a met tower in Cass County near the Fulton County line and Community Energy's in the process of siting a met tower.

The met towers are monitored at least six months. "The longer the better," Rose said. "They'd like to have a year's worth of data. The winds are seasonal."

Invenergy, on its Web site's "Landowner" link, says it wants a year's worth of data before deciding to site a wind farm. It seeks consistent year-round winds and typically 10,000 contiguous acres of land for a wind farm.

NextEra says on its Web site: "It can be several years from our first conversation to the point that NextEra Energy Resources is ready to begin construction on a wind project."

Rose said he believes it will be quite a while before landowners are approached, if they ever are, and there's nothing Fulton County can do but allow the process to develop on its own.

"The fact that we have three companies looking is good," he said. "But they don't want people to get too enthusiastic about it until there's a basis to say we're interested."

The county planning department, Rose said, is working on zoning amendments that would deal with wind energy development.

Plan Director Casi Cramer said the county's current zoning ordinance allows for smaller windmills, 60 feet or shorter, with only a building permit.

One must obtain a special exception for a larger windmill, she said.

Cramer said she's not sure when the plan commission will consider a wind ordinance and what it will include. Rose said setbacks, height and road construction standards will be included.

He said Fulton County is working with Cass County on the ordinance so the two counties' legislation matches up. A developer would not want a wind farm to cross county lines and have two sets of rules to follow, he said.

It also would behoove the county, he said, to get amendments in place as soon as possible so developers know what's expected of them if they choose to put a wind farm here.