Windfarm project tentatively
set for operation by late 2019
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CLINTON — A windfarm proposed for the northwest portion of DeWitt County could be operational by late 2019, a company official told the county Thursday.
Tom Swierczewski, a development director with Tradewind, told the county board he expected to apply for the required special use permit for the project in early 2018. He also said he anticipated construction on the project to be completed and the plant on line by 2019.
“Because …of a bad economy and electric deregulation and some other things that have happened here in Illinois, it’s kind of been on hold for a while,” Swierczewski said.
Tradewind began leasing property for the windfarm in 2008, and in 2015, the company made the project a priority. Tradewind builds wind and solar energy facilities.
“We are now moving forward on the project.”
SeeSwierczewski has been in frequent contact with county zoning administrator Angie Sarver and highway superintendent Mark Mahon, concerning the windfarm project.
The windfarm is scheduled to be up to 200mw (megawatts), about 100 wind turbines. Swierczewski said it would be about two-thirds the size of the Macon County wind project, which reaches to within a few hundred feet of the southwest DeWitt County line.
Tradewinds has leased about 21,000 acres, involving some 160 landowners, for the DeWitt County project. Tradewind expects to begin construction in early 2019 and have the project in operation by late that year.
“We’re also talking to the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources on all our environmental issues,” Swierczewski said.
He also is in contact with the Illinois Department of Agriculture on details of the company’s agricultural mitigation agreement.
“We’re on the verge of getting that approved, and things are starting to take shape,” he said.
Although the company is not yet in a position to commit to a wind tower builder, Swierczewski said, it hopes to be able to contract with Trinity Structural Towers, located north of Clinton.
“It’s going to take some time, but we are hopeful we will be able to contract with Trinity Towers at some point.”
