By ANN HINCH
Assistant Editor

WINCHESTER, Ind. — A group of Randolph County landowners and farmers waited almost a month after voting to work with Horizon Wind Energy to possibly develop a wind farm for the southwestern region of the county, to announce their intent publicly.
During the county’s Ag Day celebration on March 19, Horizon Project Manager Martin Culik and county Farm Bureau President Tom Chalfant made the brief announcement to a small gathering of residents and reporters that the Houston, Texas-based Horizon will be establishing two test sites this spring on land – yet to be chosen – southwest of Winchester. Culik explained data will be collected for at least a year to determine if the region is suitable for placement of wind turbines.
Of course, the company wouldn’t invest in test sites if it didn’t already have a good notion of potential windpower in that part of Randolph County. Culik said the area has open farmland, a seemingly good wind resource and access to transmission lines through which to pipe resultant energy for power grid sale.
“If we have those three ingredients and we can find a buyer, then we have a project,” he said. “Typically, what triggers construction is finding a buyer.
“The key thing is that this is step one of the development process.”
If Horizon’s name is familiar, perhaps it’s because of the company’s impending project in White County.
The Meadow Lake Wind Farm might produce up to 1,000 megawatts and will begin construction a year from now, according to Culik.
“It potentially could be the largest wind farm east of the Mississippi River,” he said, adding that another Horizon project – Twin Groves Wind Farm in Bloomington, Ill. – already holds that title with nearly 400 megawatts of production.
Unlike some new business ventures, Horizon Project Development Manager Ryan Brown said the company wants to be welcomed. “If an area doesn’t want us, we’re not going to fight them on it,” he said. “One of the initial things we do is try to take the ‘temperature’ of the community – are they excited about it?”
In this case, it was the residents who approached Horizon. Chalfant, also a farmer, said in 2006 a small New York company contacted him about local interest in building a wind farm. That proposal didn’t pan out, but it did pique enough interest among area landowners whom Chalfant contacted that, last September, about 80 people turned out for a special local Farm Bureau meeting at which an Indianapolis attorney suggested they organize to solicit proposals for lease of their land.
The landowners ended up receiving four proposals, which he said the attorney – Nikki Shoultz of Bose, McKinney & Evans, LLP – laid out in a comparison matrix so the landowners could better study the points most important to them. In late February, Chalfant said landowners met to discuss their preferences and then placed secret ballots “overwhelmingly” in favor of Horizon.
What they found attractive, he explained, was the company’s compensation plan and how it deals with conflict resolution. He did not give details of lease proposals, but explained it includes landowners within a certain distance of turbines, not just those who own the land on which they are being mounted. According to company literature, “landowners are typically compensated on a per-acre versus a per-turbine basis … because the number of turbines … could change depending on the wind resource assessment and evolving turbine technology.”
Chalfant added that Horizon seems knowledgeable about road access, drainage issues and the needs of production agriculture, as well. “They just had very direct, forthright answers about it,” he said.
Brown said there are several potential electric power cooperatives and companies to which to sell the windpower, and Culik said some have expressed interest. Typically, it takes about three years from beginning testing to breaking ground, he said, because of regulatory processes such as gaining permits and negotiating leases.
A Horizon wind farm in Randolph County could generate 100-200 megawatts from 60-120 turbines. Culik explained 1 megawatt can service about 300 homes. Currently, he said the company operates about 1,400 megawatts of wind farms in the United States and has another 10,000 megawatts “under development” in several states.
Nor is this the only company scouting the area. As of November 2007, electric utility Indiana Michigan Power was testing the wind capacity in an eastern portion of Randolph County. In late 2006, Greg Beumer, director of the county’s Community and Economic Development Foundation, told Farm World that renewable-energy technology could help revitalize the countryside in Indiana.
“If we look at the future of agriculture in rural Indiana, I think we need to rethink our strategies. (Wind energy) can provide tangible assets in rural communities and benefit the tax base,” Beumer said.
“We’re looking at a diversification of the work force, whether you’re a farmer or you maintain an ethanol plant or a wind turbine. We’re changing the way we’re producing jobs in the future.”
Horizon, now owned by EDP of Portugal, started in 1998 when a father-son team who handled oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico bought into a small wind company and eventually formed Zilkha Renewable Energy, which became Horizon. The Portuguese utility touts itself with Horizon as one of the largest owners of wind generation assets in the world.