MANSFIELD – A representative of the company developing the Black Fork Wind Farm told Richland County Commissioners the company plans to start construction this year but there is no guarantee that will happen.
Bill Behling, a business development manager with Capital Power, the Canadian-based developer associated with the wind farm in the northwest corner of Richland County, began his updates with clarifications.
“I met with Crawford County commissioners last week, there was a story in the paper, the first sentence essentially said, ‘We’re going to be in the ground this year.’ I want to clarify that, that’s not necessarily true. We want to start construction, that’s our goal, that’s our intent. But we’re starting construction and to start construction, you have to place a deposit for equipment with the Internal Revenue Service.”
Behling said the project was still on schedule, telling commissioners the contract discussions will take place in the first half of this year and final design should be complete by this spring.
Behling said construction would take about one year. He hopes the project will be completed by 2017.
Behling told commissioners and seven private citizens in the audience the production tax credit extension was approved in December. This extended the credit for five years and it will reduce by 20 percent every year over the next five years, a “phase out.”
Behling said many at his company and in the industry are working diligently to move the project forward to not lose the degrading value of tax credits.
Reminding the commissioners of Amazon’s commitment to renewable energy for its warehouse in Licking County, Behling said the company recently purchased 150 megawatts of wind from that wind farm.
“There has been a lot of development in terms of interest in renewable power projects, certainly from the commercial investment corporations,” Behling said. “In 2014, 19 percent of new renewable energy purchases were from (commercial investment corporations) customers, and in 2015 that increased to 56 percent. So more corporations are buying renewable energy than they are utilities across the country.”
Jon Parman of the Indiana/Kentucky/Ohio Regional Council of Carpenters asked Behling about local job availability.
“It seems like the community has been very cooperative with this wind turbine project,” Parman said. “What percentage of manpower do you expect to use, locally, to construct these wind turbines?”
He also asked if a written agreement could be made because there is no law mandating local forces be used.
“We retain five or six national engineering procuring construction firms that this is their business,” Behling said. “We will be in contact with them; they will essentially be our constructor. We will contract with them and they will determine who they will subcontract with.”
Matt Williams, a representative of labor unions, told the commissioners Mansfield had at least 60 wind turbine-trained workers who could do the work if they were allowed.
“I’ve visited the training center in Howard, and they mentioned they do training specifically to work in this field,” commissioner Marilyn John said.
Behling said no turbines had been purchased, but options included turbines built by Siemens in Kansas; General Electric, which is an American company despite the turbines being built in Canada; and Vestas Turbines from Colorado.
Parman asked Behling to share reasons why this wind farm is good for the community. Behling said the Black Fork Wind Farm Project would provide substantial property taxes for the city, more than 150 job opportunities, and about 10 to 15 long term jobs in maintaining the farms’ operations.
