Wind farm still needs customer

Little has changed since officials from NextEra Energy met with Jay County Council in February and received a four-year extension on a tax abatement for the proposed Bluff Point Wind Farm. But local officials remain optimistic the project will come to fruition.
“At this point, I haven’t found any reason to say that it’s not going to happen,” said Bill Bradley, executive director of Jay County Development Corporation. “It’s just a matter of getting all the ducks in a row in the project. We’ve got about 85 to 90 percent of the ducks in a row. We’ve just got to find a buyer for the energy. I’m still confident.”
Finding a buyer for the 120 megawatts of energy the wind farm would produce remains the lone hurdle for the proposed $240-million project in southern Jay and northern Randolph counties.
NextEra’s tax abatement extension from Jay County Council gives it until the end of 2018 to complete Bluff Point Wind Farm, for which construction was originally scheduled to begin in spring 2013 but has been stalled for more than a year. The company has also extended lease agreements with landowners in southern Jay County, which has buoyed longtime proponent and Pike Township farmer Bob Lyons’ hopes that the project will become a reality.
“I’m very optimistic,” he said. “The leases that they are renewing are more lucrative. There’s bonuses involved.
“Why would they be willing to do that if they weren’t somewhat optimistic that this was going to fly?”
Bluff Point Wind Farm has been nearly a decade in planning, beginning in 2006 when American Electric Power announced its intention to conduct a wind study in Jay County.
Officials from the company said in 2009 that testing was favorable and work began toward a wind farm, but AEP pulled out of the project in May 2011 in favor of a similar opportunity in Grant, Howard and Madison counties.
NextEra, which is based in Florida, stepped in and took over the project four months later and eventually announced plans to begin construction in 2013. But those plans were derailed a year ago when AEP, which was then expected to purchase the energy the farm would create, instead announced an agreement with EDP Renewables for the 200-megawatt Headwaters Wind Farm in southern Randolph County. Construction on that project is currently underway.
Although it’s been more than a year since that decision was announced, NextEra media relations representative Steve Stengel emphasized patience is necessary when dealing with complexity of such an expansive project.
“Every region of the country is unique. Every region of the country is different. The needs in a particular region are different. With any wind project there are a number of things that you need, and a customer is one of them,” he said. “These are long-term decisions. These are 20-year decisions that customers make for projects like these. So these are big economic decisions that customers have to make.”
While the company has until 2018 based on its abatement agreement with Jay County Council, it faces and earlier deadline in regard to the Production Tax Credit.
The PTC gives companies that create renewable energy a 2.2-cent benefit per kilowatt hour for each of the first 10 years of operation. But in order for NextEra to reap that reward, it must begin development of the facility before the credit is set to expire at the end of 2015.
“Ultimately what happens with the production tax credit matters,” Stengel said.
Bradley said he hopes an agreement can be reached before the expiration becomes an issues.
“We see a strong commitment on the part of NextEra to find a utility partner for this project,” he said. “They have made a commitment to myself and Bob Lyons that it’s one of their priorities as a company right now … That’s what’s been holding it up.”
The county has backed the project, which would include 49 turbines in Jay County in a 30-square-mile area bordered by county roads 700 East, 250 West, 600 North and 900 South (the Jay/Randolph county line), in part because of the possible tax benefits. It is projected to bring $20 million in tax revenue over its 30-year life span.[[In-content Ad]]