From an editorial in The Tomah Journal:

Perhaps it’s Gov. Scott Walker’s goal to have 99 percent of Wisconsin’s energy come from fossil fuels by 2020.

How else to explain his push to effectively ban wind turbines in Wisconsin?

A governor who said job creation is his top priority couldn’t wait two weeks into his new administration before putting the kibosh on the state’s wind energy business.

Walker’s proposal would mandate minimum setbacks of 1,800 feet between a wind turbine and the nearest property line. That compares with a setback distance of 1,250 feet from a neighboring residence approved by the Public Service Commission in a rule adopted last year.

How draconian are Walker’s proposed rules?

“There are very few locations in the entire Badger State that could overcome such extreme constraints,” said Michael Vickerman of Renew Wisconsin. “You can count the locations on the fingers of one hand.”

Walker’s proposal is wrong on multiple levels.

*Renewable energy. Like it or not, fossil fuels are a finite resource, but Walker has shown an almost mindless hostility toward alternative energy and alternative transportation. It doesn’t take a tree hugger to question that hostility. Wisconsin has no fossil fuel resources of its own, and every BTU generated by oil and coal represents dollars that leave the state.

*Jobs. It takes labor to manufacture, build and maintain wind turbines. The same governor who killed a big chunk of the passenger train industry in Wisconsin is poised to terminate the wind turbine industry.

*Private property rights. The same governor who can’t wait to allow developers to fill wetlands suddenly transforms into the great regulator when it comes to contracts between private property owners and wind turbine companies

For immediate release
January 10, 2011

More information
RENEW Wisconsin
Michael Vickerman
608.255.4044
mvickerman@renewwisconsin.org

Landowners and Municipalities to Reap Millions from Wind Farm Operations for 2010

Owners of Wisconsin’s four largest wind energy projects will pay out approximately $2.8 million in rent to landowners hosting turbines and payments in lieu of taxes to local governments for 2010, according to figures compiled by RENEW Wisconsin, a statewide renewable energy advocacy organization.

Wind energy developers negotiate lease agreements with landowners to host turbines on their property. Payments can be as high as $7,000 per turbine per year. Estimated rental payments to all Fond du Lac and Dodge county landowners will total slightly more than $1.2 million in 2010.

Towns and counties do not collect property taxes from wind turbines but instead receive payments based on the generating capacity of each turbine, allocated under a formula adopted by the Legislature in 2003. Payments to those local governments will reach almost $1.6 million for 2010.

“These revenues help support farm families and rural Wisconsin communities.” said Michael Vickerman, executive director of RENEW Wisconsin. “It’s a much better deal for the state than sending dollars go Wyoming and West Virginia for the coal imported to Wisconsin to generate electricity.”

Gary Haltaufderheide, an employee of Madison-based Land Services Company, which negotiates land leases for large projects, like pipelines and wind turbines, says, “Farmers are smart business people and they’re very satisfied with the payments. One farmer saw the lease as a way to cover tuition payments for a child entering college.”

Four wind projects – Forward, Blue Sky Green Field, Cedar Ridge, and Butler Ridge – account for the payments to host landowners and local governments. Together these projects comprise nearly 90 percent of Wisconsin’s wind generation fleet.

When calculated over a 20-year contract period, total revenues should exceed $60 million, taking inflation into account.

Shirley Wind, the state’s newest wind power installation, will contributed another $80,000 a year, divided equally between Brown County, Town of Glenmore, local landowners, and neighbors within one-third of a mile of a turbine. The eight-turbine, 20-megawatt project began producing electricity in 2010.

Click tables to enlarge.

From an article by Craig D. Reber in The Herald, Dubuque, Iowa:

A wind-siting rule that took effect in Wisconsin on Jan. 1* could open the door to wind farms in southwest Wisconsin.

The rule provides a path for obtaining a permit to build a wind farm — as long as the project developers abide by the guidelines established by the state Public Service Commission. If a township or other municipality opts to regulate a wind-energy power system, its

ordinances can’t be more restrictive than the PSC’s rules.

Basically, the PSC’s rules trump any local ordinances.

In southwest Wisconsin, the new rule could pave the way for the development of the proposed White Oak wind project by Wind Capital Group that includes parts of Smel-ser, Hazel Green and Paris townships. The project has been on hold for more than two years.

“We believe that passage of the PSC’s rule will certainly set the conditions in place that make development of wind facilities much more possible in Wisconsin,” said Tom Green, Wind Capital senior manager of project development. “In reviewing the new rule and applying those rules to their plans for White Oak, they will have a better idea moving into Advertisement

the future of the viability of the project.”

Ron Brisbois, Grant County Economic Development director, said the new law will allow communities to plan and give wind developers the freedom to create wind-farm strategies.

“That was what everybody was waiting on,” Brisbois said of the White Oak project and another in northern Grant County. “This should allow them to move forward to secure financing and implement the design of the full layout of where the turbines will go.”

“It’s important,” said Joe Alt, of rural Cuba City and a participant in the White Oak project, discussing the new rule. “It’s definitely going to help get a wind farm going.”

* At the time the reporter wrote the story, January 1 appeared to be the effective date of the new rules. However, simple logistical delays in officially publishing the rule push the effective date to March 1.

From an article by Kari Lydersen in Midwest Energy News:

Wisconsin is the first state in the region to apply statewide siting standards to small wind farms, potentially eliminating messy fights over city- and county-level regulation. Will other states follow suit?

On Jan. 1, a new Wisconsin state law took effect that wind energy advocates call an important step – and even a national model – for alleviating the chaotic and shifting patchwork of municipal and county siting regulations that can create great uncertainty and moving goalposts for wind developers.

The rule, drafted by the state’s Public Service Commission at the behest of state legislators, sets a limit on how stringent siting and other regulations can be for wind farms under 100 megawatts, but still gives local governments the opportunity to appeal for an exception.

Many states have an agency that issues permits for all major wind farms on a case-by-case basis. However, most states lack uniform, enforceable standards governing wind turbine siting, leaving regulatory decisions to local governments.

This is seldom an issue when wind farms are built in remote areas. But in more densely populated parts of the Midwest, disputes over wind farms have prompted local governments to pass rules that – wind proponents say – are often driven more by local politics and vocal activists than sound science.

In response, wind developers and advocates are increasingly discussing statewide standards or guidelines – like Wisconsin’s new rules – that still allow local input while imposing some objectivity and uniformity on the siting process.

RENEW Wisconsin executive director Michael Vickerman said the law – the result of a three-year process involving advocates, developers and state and local officials – should be key in helping the state continue to develop its ample wind resources and help prevent local governments from passing “de facto moratoria” on wind farms, as has happened throughout the Midwest in recent years. . . .

‘An absurdly large setback’
Chuck Burdick, senior wind energy developer of Minneapolis-based National Wind, wishes Minnesota would adopt a rule similar to Wisconsin’s. National Wind’s proposed 78-megawatt wind farm in Goodhue County is in limbo since county officials in October passed an ordinance mandating setbacks of 10 rotor diameters – about 2,700 feet for National Wind’s project – from non-participating landowners (Wisconsin’s rules limit setbacks to no more than 1,250 feet).

The state Public Utilities Commission, which grants permits for wind farms on a case-by-case basis, has asked an administrative law judge to decide whether it should honor the county’s regulation. A final decision could take months, jeopardizing federal stimulus funding that is contingent on the $180 million project going online by the end of 2011.

“We’d been pursuing this permit for a year well in excess of existing rules, then at the last minute the rules changed under us,” said Burdick, noting the PUC has approved several other wind farms with 1,000-foot setbacks in recent months. “This is just ridiculous, it’s an absurdly large setback the county is asking for, and it’s not about health or safety, it’s about politics.”

Under Minnesota’s rules, wind farms under 25 megawatts must be set back at least 500 feet from non-participating property owners, and PUC spokesman Dan Wolf said the agency also considers that a baseline requirement for larger projects.