PAXTON — A global developer of renewable-energy projects with U.S. headquarters in Denver, Colo., is interested in building a wind farm that could be as large as 150 megawatts and encompass portions of Ford, Iroquois, Champaign and Livingston counties.
Renewable Energy Systems — RES, for short — is in the early stages of development on the yet-to-be-named wind-farm project, only recently meeting with landowners in the project area to gauge their interest in leasing out their land.
Those meetings — at the Arcade Cafe in Paxton on Jan. 31 and the Backwoods Diner and Bakery in Roberts on Feb. 1 — went well, though, with an estimated 100 people in attendance between each to go along with a lot of interest, according to Patrick Busko, development manager for RES, whose global headquarters are in Kings Langley, England.
“We’ve had quite a few (landowners) express an interest,” Busko told the Ford County Chronicle on Monday. “Some are folks in the community who have been involved in wind projects before and are familiar with the process and excited to have us in the area. We’ve got a warm response.”
Busko noted there is still more “exploratory work” to do — including “door-knocking” and phone calls — to gauge landowner interest in a broad project area that spans large portions of central Ford County and southwestern Iroquois County and also includes smaller areas of neighboring Champaign and Livingston counties.
“Ford and Iroquois are the primary two counties (involved),” Busko said, “but it might pop over the county line in the other two.”
The landowner soliciting process has been under way for months and will continue in upcoming weeks, as well, before leases are signed, more landowner meetings are held, project design is narrowed down, and community meetings are then held to explain the project to the public and answer questions, Busko said.
“Basically we’re just soliciting interest at this point,” Busko said. “We’ve got a broad area — a broad net that we’re casting — so at this point we’re just gauging landowner interest of whether there is an appetite for landowners to sign up for a wind project and, if so, where does that fall on a map (to make a project viable).”
Busko said RES is planning for a wind farm ranging in capacity from 100 to 150 megawatts. The project would require a special-use permit from all involved counties, with public hearings held before each county’s zoning board of appeals. Ford County Zoning Enforcement Officer Brandon Magers said Monday he had not yet been contacted by RES regarding the project.
If built, it would be the fourth wind farm in Ford County, which already has the 150-megawatt Pioneer Trail Wind Farm near Paxton, owned by RWE Renewables North Americas LLC; the 121-megawatt Ford County Wind Farm near Sibley, owned by Ørsted North America; and the 185-megawatt Pilot Hill Wind Farm near Kempton, owned by EDF Renewables North America.
Busko said he mailed letters an estimated “60 to 90 days ago” to landowners inviting them to attend either of the two recent meetings in Paxton and Roberts to discuss the financial benefits of leasing out their land for the wind farm’s construction and operation.
As a landowner in the project area, Ford County Board Vice Chairman Cindy Ihrke of rural Roberts was among those who received a mailed invitation. Ihrke, who provided the Ford County Chronicle with a copy of the invitation last week, said other county board members who own land in the project area — including Ann Ihrke of rural Buckley and the board’s chairman, Debbie Smith of Paxton — received the invitation, too, but, like herself, were unable to attend.
“We are contacting you regarding a potential utility-scale wind project that Renewable Energy Systems (RES) is interested in developing in your area,” the invitation begins. “We’ve identified land that you own which has favorable characteristics for a wind project and would appreciate the opportunity to discuss RES’s unique development approach along with the financial benefits to both your family and the larger community.”
RES executives and project team members were on hand for the so-called “meet-and-greets,” which included a complimentary buffet.
Busko said RES is a developer and builder of wind farms and is also owner/operator of wind farms through joint ventures.
“We will develop a project, and sometimes someone buys it from us, or sometimes someone partners with us,” Busko said. “We are an owner, in that sense, but usually we have a partner involved.”
On the company’s website, RES calls itself “the world’s largest independent renewable energy company,” active in both onshore and offshore wind projects, along with solar, energy storage, green hydrogen, transmission and distribution projects. In all, RES has 23 gigawatts of renewable energy projects in 14 countries across the globe with “an operational asset portfolio exceeding 12GW worldwide for a large client base,” its website says.
Last August, RES announced that it had completed the asset sale of its proposed Forty Mile Wind project in Alberta, Canada, to Acciona Energía. As the largest RES-developed project in Canada, the proposed 400-megawatt wind farm will be built in two phases: one featuring 49 turbines and a generating capacity of 280 megawatts, the other featuring 21 turbines and a generating capacity of 120 megawatts. It is RES’s seventh wind project in Alberta and 23rd in Canada, with others including the adjacent 125-megawatt Rattlesnake Ridge wind project.
“Over the past 20 years, RES has been involved in the development of 3.2GW of wind and solar projects and overseen the construction of nearly 1.8GW of wind, solar, transmission and storage projects in Canada,” said an Aug. 30 news release from RES. “The company continues to develop utility-scale wind, solar and battery storage projects across the country.”
