BY STAN MADDUX, Post-Tribunecorrespondent
A company from Kansas is exploring building two wind farms, one near Kouts and one near LaCrosse.
Within the next month, Trade Wind Energy of Lenexa, Kan., will erect a 197-foot-tall wind monitoring tower.
The tower -- just six inches in circumference -- outside LaCrosse near Indiana 8 and County Road 1100W will monitor wind speeds at all levels 24 hours a day for about two years.
The testing will determine if there's enough wind to warrant building a wind farm that would produce 200 megawatts per hour, according to Paul Smith, a leasing specialist with Trade Wind Energy.
"We believe there is. We've been studying this area now for eight months," Smith said.
Because guide wire towers are not allowed in the county, a zoning variance had to be granted this week.
"They want to get going with it," LaPorte County zoning administrator Ray Hamilton said.
Smith said the wind farm would have about 10 percent the generating capacity as the NIPSCO electrical plant in Wheatfield.
NIPSCO would be a potential customer for the electricity produced at the wind farm that would feed into existing high voltage lines, he said.
"We just feel it's a good location," Richard Polich, also of Trade Wind Energy, said.
The monitoring tower will be on a site that's leased.
Another monitoring tower is being planned for somewhere between LaCrosse and Kouts.
"We'd like to do a monitoring tower in Porter County if we can get lease agreements with landowners," Smith said.
If the findings are favorable, Smith said it would take about four years to negotiate lease agreements with existing landowners and construct the actual wind farm.
He said 38,000 acres are being considered for wind farm construction in LaPorte and Porter counties.
"We have a couple locations we're looking at right now," Smith said.