Wind turbines like these in Tipton County are slated to dot the landscape in southern Jay County by the end of 2017 after Appalachian Power on Thursday announced an agreement to buy power from NextEra Energy Resources’ Bluff Point Wind Energy Center. The proposed $200 million project will generate 120 megawatts of power with up to 58 turbines in southern Jay County and northern Randolph County. (The Commercial Review/Ray Cooney).
Wind turbines like these in Tipton County are slated to dot the landscape in southern Jay County by the end of 2017 after Appalachian Power on Thursday announced an agreement to buy power from NextEra Energy Resources’ Bluff Point Wind Energy Center. The proposed $200 million project will generate 120 megawatts of power with up to 58 turbines in southern Jay County and northern Randolph County. (The Commercial Review/Ray Cooney).
A decade worth of work and waiting is finally set to bring wind power to Jay County.

Appalachian Power, a subsidiary of American Electric Power, announced Thursday an agreement with NextEra Energy Resources to purchase the 120 megawatts of power to be produced by the proposed $200 million Bluff Point Wind Energy Center in Jay and Randolph counties.

NextEra’s goal is to build the facility, previously known as Bluff Point Wind Farm, in 2017 and have it operational before the start of 2018.

“Finally,” said Pike Township farmer Bob Lyons, who has been a vocal supporter of the project. “We finally got there.”

Appalachian submitted a request Wednesday to the Virginia State Corporation Commission to allow the company that services Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee to recover renewable energy costs. It will make a similar request to Public Service Commission of West Virginia.

The purchase of energy from NextEra is part of a plan by Appalachian, which has traditionally been a coal-fired operation, to use more renewable resources. It will bring the company to a total of 495 megawatts of wind power, about the size of a medium-sized coal or natural gas plant, all of which is being purchased from operations in Illinois, West Virginia and Indiana, including Fowler Ridge Wind Farm in Benton County.

“Our company is looking for a more diverse, long-term portfolio of generation,” said Appalachian spokesperson John Shepelwhich, noting that the NextEra project was chosen from a group of 12 after his company put out a request for purchase early this year. “So we’ve been looking for wind generation as well as other sources like solar and hydro. …

“It’s a sizable addition for Appalachian Power … This was a good time to do it for us, and NextEra had a very good plan and it fit within our timeframe. … It just seemed like a good opportunity for us and hopefully a good opportunity for NextEra.”

The agreement brings the project full circle, as AEP was the original developer of the Bluff Point project and for a time was slated to buy the energy from the wind farm after NextEra took over.

NextEra, which is based in Florida, had been looking for a buyer for the energy ever since. The company is the largest producer of wind energy in the world, operating more than 1,100 wind farms in the United States and Canada.

“We’re very pleased to have signed a deal with Appalachian Power to be able to provide them with renewable energy from Bluff Point for the next 20 years,” said Bryan Garner, manager of communications for NextEra. “We’re very excited to be able to build our first project in Indiana, and I think this is going to be a project that Jay and Randolph counties can be proud of, one that will deliver significant economic benefits to those communities.”

With an energy buyer now in place, the next step for NextEra is to finalize the design process.

That will include “micro-siting,” locking in specific locations for each of the turbines. General sites have been in place for years for the wind farm, which will be bordered by county roads 600 south, 250 West, 700 East and Randolph County road 900 North.

Design will continue through the end of the year, Garner said, with a formalized site plan ready by early 2017.

Of the $200 million investment, about two-thirds will be in Jay County. NextEra estimates that it will pay about $20 million to landowners over the life of the wind farm as well as about $30 million in property taxes to Jay and Randolph counties.

NextEra and Jay County have already agreed on a 10-year tax abatement on a sliding scale.

The wind farm will create about 200 jobs during the construction phase, and then seven to 10 full-time jobs to operate the facility.

“I think from the standpoint of what its going to do for the assessed valuation of the county over the long haul, for the next 30 years, is going to be very beneficial,” said Bill Bradley, executive director of Jay County Development Corp. “It gives you a really good feeling. It’s something you’ve worked on for a long, long time.”

The project will include up to 58 turbines, with about 40 of those in Jay County. They stand about 500 feet tall to the tip of the blade at its highest point.

The original design called for 70 turbines.

“Because we’ve been working on the project for several years, the technology has gotten better,” said Garner. “So we’re able to generate more megawatt hours of energy from each turbine … so we can do it with fewer turbines.”

Discussions about constructing a wind farm in Jay County began in 2006 when AEP announced it would conduct a wind study. By 2009, the company had determined that the area was favorable and began planning for a 120-megawatt facility with between 48 and 80 turbines.

AEP backed out of the project in 2011 in favor of a similar effort in Grant, Howard and Madison counties, but NextEra quickly stepped in as the new developer. Construction was slated to begin in 2013, but those plans changed when AEP, then slated to buy the power from Bluff Point, instead became part of the Headwaters Wind Farm in southern Randolph County.

Local officials remained cautiously optimistic that Bluff Point could become a reality, seeing it as an economic booster for the county.

“I don’t see a negative side to it,” said Jay County Commissioners president Faron Parr. “There’s a few people in the county that don’t like the sight of the windmills, but (NextEra) didn’t seem to have any problems securing the land that they needed to put them on. … I think the good outweighs the negative by far.

“It’s a nice shot in the arm income-wise with the money it’ll raise and the tax revenue it will bring in. I think it’s positive for the county.”
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