JEFFERSON – A standing-room-only crowd of county residents peppered elected leaders and project representatives with questions about a potential utility scale wind power development during a public information session held Tuesday, Aug. 4, at Henderson Memorial Public Library.
Apex Clean Energy, based in Charlottesville, Va., is in what it characterizes as the early stages of developing Station Wind, a planned 300-megawatt wind power project using 50 to 70 turbines erected across much of the eastern portion of Ashtabula County.
Apex has been leasing land toward a goal of 30,000 acres within a footprint of approximately 300 acres.
The clean energy company is looking to lease property from private owners in Williamsfield, Wayne, Colebrook, New Lyme, Cherry Valley, Andover, Richmond, Dorset, Lenox, Morgan, Pierpont, Monroe and Sheffield townships.
Turbine locations have not been selected, but they will be spread out over the entire target area. Approximately 12,000 acres have already been leased. Prospective sites were chosen for the economical wind resource, existing transmission infrastructure and capacity and interested private landowners.
At HMPL, the county commissioners, a township trustee and a pair of project representatives from Apex laid out the process for developing station wind, progress made so far, then fielded a raft of questions from skeptical – and sometimes angry – residents and landowners regarding Station Wind.
Commissioner J.P. Ducro IV said the County wants to give townships a say, rather than making decisions “in a vacuum.”
Ohio Senate Bill 52 is a 2021 state law that significantly altered the approval process for utility-scale renewable energy developments by granting the county commissioners veto power over wind and solar projects. The law overrides the public utility exemption, giving the County authority to prohibit or limit the size of large wind and solar facilities.
Counties can proactively designate restricted areas where wind and solar developments are entirely banned or establish energy development districts where they are permitted.
Rather than make the decision from Jefferson, Board President Casey Kozlowski said the commissioners wanted to inform townships on what SB 52 calls for and get the trustees’ input before assembling a map for Ashtabula County.
SB 52 governs “economically significant” projects of between 5-50 megawatts and “utility scale” projects of 50 megawatts and over, giving local townships the option to decide whether the entire township is open for renewable energy development, part of it or to close it altogether. Projects of 5 megawatts or less are governed by local zoning codes.
The county can also have a project-specific response, according to Kozlowski. Until the County’s map is finalized, the County will operate on a project-specific basis, he added.
The commissioners are asking each township to identify areas where utility-scale projects should be restricted, if any, considering the needs of agriculture, economic development, residential areas, natural resources, local infrastructure and community identity, according to Kozlowski.
The townships will have a 90-day review period to go over materials and confer with local officials before holding public hearings on a draft a resolution and map with the rationale for restricting renewable energy development.
The county has a Tuesday, Sept. 1, deadline for submission, according to Kozlowski.
The board will then compile the information for the unincorporated areas and create a countywide resolution and map, hold more public hearings and pass a resolution of its own. Incorporated areas have their own home-rule authority governing development, according to Kozlowski.
The goal is to balance property rights with the needs of local communities, according to Ducro.
Residents can challenge a decision to allow or block a project by gathering signatures to place a referendum on the local ballot. A referendum can be filed within 30 days of map publication, with an 8-percent signature threshold.
Developers must submit a comprehensive decommissioning plan prepared by a professional engineer 60 days before starting construction, including fully funded cost estimates that omit salvage value.
County officials sat down with local township representatives Monday, June 1, at A-Tech to present the process to implement state rules for siting wind and solar energy facilities and to ask townships for input in deciding whether and where they can be built.
The first question at the HMPL session from a resident was what plans Apex has in the event of a turbine fire or tower collapse.
Liam Keough, project developer, said turbine fires are rare, but “we are prepared.”
Robert Gee, senior development manager for Apex Clean Energy, said modern turbines have a built-in fire-suppression system and limit the space for an electrical arc inside the unit.
In the event the fire suppression system fails, Gee said “Our usual response is to let it burn.”
Another resident asked if Apex has a plan for takedown after decommissioning any turbines.
Gee said all wind power developers in Ohio must submit a decommissioning and takedown plan with the state and put up a bond to cover the deconstruction costs, which is held by the county. He clarified that Apex has yet to decommission a wind power development.
In response to a follow-up, he added that most turbine materials are either reusable, recyclable or can easily be repurposed.
On the topic of revenues for local taxing authorities, Keough said there is a potential Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) agreement of $2.7 million per year on the table that will be distributed to local authorities under standard millage rates.
He later clarified that would be approximately $50,000 to the township, $800,000 to the county and $1 million to the school district.
When asked about funds for local business development, Keough said the Ohio Power Siting Board mandates that half of the construction labor must be contracted with Ohio firms. This elicited some shouts back from the audience, mostly some variation of, “We meant local, not just Ohio.”
Keough said any influx of labor on this scale will mean a boost in trade for local hospitality, food service and other service industry businesses.
Another resident raised the problem of what she called “visual pollution” in eastern Ashtabula County that could negatively affect tourism.
Keough pivoted to the benefits tax revenues will have for schools and communities, the benefit lease payments will have for landowners and improvements Apex will make to local civil infrastructure during construction.
Several audience members pressed the commissioners on whether they will commit to the decisions the townships make regarding wind power developments – asking if the board has the power to override townships resolutions.
Kozlowski answered yes, qualifying his response by pointing to the protections under SB 52.
“That authority rests with us,” he said, before adding that the siting map will be released publicly and residents will have the option of putting a referendum on the ballot.
Commissioner Kathryn Whittington said the township maps are what the commissioners will use to create the siting map.
Ducro said the commissioners are asking the townships to guide them in their decisions.
Trumbull Township Trustee Adam Niewiadomski stepped in to say that, as of the meeting, there are zero projects underway and that Apex is “prospecting” the area to gauge support.
Keough said there will be significant lead time on development as well, anywhere from five to nine years before construction gets underway.
Another resident asked what the cost per kilowatt hour is for wind-generated electricity, claiming it is more expensive and less reliable than conventional sources.
Keough said that, lacking input costs, onshore wind power costs $68 per megawatt hour. The U.S. Department of Energy cites $.03-$.06 per kilowatt hour for onshore wind, cheaper than any other sources listed by the federal regulator.
This is despite the expiry of federal tax credits for wind power developments in mid-July, according to Gee.
Two major concerns raised during the meeting were turbine noise and shadow flicker.
All electrical fields emit low-frequency hum as magnetic fields inside a turbine interact to generate electricity. Shadow flicker occurs when the sun shines through a windmill as the blades turn, causing homes below to experience rapidly shifting periods of light and darkness that can be disturbing.
Gee said state and federal regulations cap turbine noise at 45 decibels at a distance of five times the diameter of the windmill’s blades, or about 1,300 feet in the case of Station Wind.
According to Yale Environmental Health & Safety, 45db is about as loud as the compressor on a home refrigerator and about half as loud as a vacuum cleaner.
Shadow flicker requires a very specific set of circumstances that put the sun behind the wind turbine at the right angle to affect residents below it, and the period of exposure is nearly always brief, according to Gee.
However, regulations limit exposure in a home to 30 hours per year before it must be mitigated – up to and including decommissioning the turbine, according to Gee. He clarified in a follow-up that this applies only to the habitation and not the entire property.
In response to a repeated criticism, Gee said Apex is not a regulated utility, does not have eminent domain power and cannot run transfer lines – which require a 150-foot-wide easement – through land Apex does not hold a lease for. He said the company will try to obtain a lease and find another way around if it cannot get one.
In response to one of the more salient questions of the night, Ducro said he couldn’t make promises about property value depreciation if the development moves forward.
“I don’t know, I’ve seen different things,” he said.
Considering the decisions in Austinburg, Dorset, Plymouth and Williamsfield townships to pass resolutions restricting wind power developments and public sentiment regarding the project, Niewiadomski asked residents to consider the bigger picture.
“I think when everyone sees the map, you’re going to breathe a big sigh of relief,” he said.
