By Brandi Watters, Herald Bulletin Staff Writer
brandi.watters@heraldbulletin.com
ELWOOD - Madison County might be getting a wind farm.
Madison County Planning Director Cory Wilson said Tuesday that a permit for a meteorological tower would likely be approved this week, giving wind farm technology company E-On the green light to begin studying wind speeds north of Elwood.
Wilson has been in talks with the company since April about creating a wind farm in the northwest corner of the county in territories shared by Tipton and Grant counties.
E-On helped in the construction of 200 windmills in Benton County, Wilson said.
Benton County was the first Indiana County to build a wind farm and now Earl Park touts the farm as a tourist destination, providing road maps that border the farm, showing off the new technology.
Wilson said the wind farm could bring 600 temporary jobs created for construction of the 225 windmills.
But Wilson warns that those jobs are still two years away.
The meteorological tower must monitor wind speeds for two years before E-On will start construction on the wind farm.
That isn't keeping Madison County officials from preparing for the farm.
The Madison County commissioners will vote on an ordinance at the Feb. 10 meeting that establishes regulations for land use in regard to wind farms.
The measure is "not to promote it or turn it away," according to Commissioner Paul Wilson, D-South District. "We wanted to protect the citizens of the county."
Cory Wilson said the company does not plan to purchase land in the northern part of the county for the farm.
Instead, E-On is in talks with local land owners about leasing 20-foot by 20-foot patches of land for $5,000 per year.
"You can farm within 10 feet of the tower," Cory Wilson said.
He is confident that wind energy is the future.
"There is enough wind, in the research that I've done, to supply the entire United States," he said.
Cory Wilson believes Madison County will profit from wind energy as the technology is developed. "With all the manufacturing jobs lost in this area and the work force that is skilled in manufacturing, the Midwest is poised to do well in this green job environment."