The Bluff Point Wind Energy Center is closer to becoming reality.
Officials with NextEra Energy Resources told Jay County Plan Commission on Thursday that 57 wind turbines are slated to dot southern Jay County and northern Randolph County by the end of next year.
“This is a project we believe is moving forward, we have no reason to believe it won’t,” NextEra attorney Mary Solada said of the long-awaited wind farm that has been discussed for about a decade.
Appalachian Power, a subsidiary of American Electric Power, announced in June an agreement with NextEra to purchase the 120 megawatts of power to be produced by the proposed $200 million Bluff Point Wind Energy Center.
In an informational presentation Thursday, Solada said current plans are for permits to be obtained in the first quarter of 2017 with the project competed by year’s end.
“It only takes six to nine months to build a wind project,” she said.
Solada said an updated site plan was provided to Jay/Portland Building and Planning director John Hemmelgarn in August. The new plan calls for fewer turbines but taller structures.
“That site plan, back in 2012, provided for 70 wind turbines. The project now is reduced to about 62 turbines. We think there will be about 44 in Jay County. So less turbines,” Solada said.
Better technology has allowed fewer turbines to be needed to produce the same amount of energy, said NextEra’s Jeremy Ferrell, project director for Bluff Point.
They will be 2.1-megawatt machines as opposed to the 1.5-megawatt turbines proposed in 2012, when plan commission approved the previous site plan.
“So we have maximum ability to put in 120 megawatts. So because we have that maximum ability, right, it’s just simple math,” Ferrell said.
While 62 turbines are sited, 57 are planned to be constructed.
“We have those five extra in case something comes up when we are doing that environmental work, geo-technical work or engineering work,” said Ferrell. “If something goes awry, we can quickly move to another turbine we’ve already identified.”
The updated plans call for a maximum height of the turbines to come in about 10 feet higher than proposed in 2012. Solada said the project has committed to a turbine setback length of at least 1,400 feet (just over a quarter mile) from residences.