Thursday, August 16, 2007
ELKTON - Workers erected the Thumb area's first commercial wind turbine Wednesday, and heads were spinning even if the structure's blades weren't yet turning to make electricity.
Motorists cruised along Richardson and Gagetown roads in Huron County's Oliver Township, rubbernecking at a turbine where blades reach a peak height of 396 feet above the ground.
''The people were lined up in cars all along Richardson Road as far as I could see to the east, and they were parked in the fields, parked all over the place,'' said Adolph Einhardt, 86, who watched iron workers and crane operators raise the first turbine on Helen Young's farm. Hours later, crews began working on a turbine on farmland owned by Einhardt and his wife, Marian, between Elkton and Pigeon.
''I call that one mine,'' said Adolph Einhardt, watching crews assemble the turbine's tower in pieces in a sugar beet field behind his barn.
During the coming months, members of Iron Workers Local 25 and Operating Engineers Local 324 will erect 32 turbines as part of the Harvest Wind Farm owned by John Deere Wind Energy. The venture is the first commercial-scale wind farm in Michigan.
Huron County officials have said another 200 or more turbines could rise in coming years in other parts of the county, and in adjacent Sanilac County.
The Harvest Wind Farm, with 32 turbines on land across 3,200 acres of land in Oliver and Chandler townships, will require up to 10 employees to operate and maintain.
''It's going to create a few jobs, but a few are better than none,'' said Lonna M. Fisher, village clerk in Elkton, population 1,000.
Local planners say Harvest Wind Farm represents an investment of more than $90 million. Placement of the 32 turbines has created dozens of jobs during construction, requiring skills of union iron workers such as Rick Lorenzo of Bay County's Frankenlust Township and Paul Tilot of Saginaw County's Kochville Township.
''This is good for MY economy,'' said Bob Geiger of Caro, an iron worker helping assemble steel tower bases for each of the 32 turbines.
''I'd like to be the local land owner who leases (wind-farm operators) the land by each tower and leases out the land for the service roads to the towers,'' Rick Lorenzo said.
Crane operator Greg ''Digger'' Curtis of Pigeon in Huron County said the wind-farm project has brought him not only paychecks, but popularity.
“My neighbors are all talking to me about it. They're just curious about what's going on”, said Curtis, a member of Operating Engineers Local 324.
Each completed turbine features a trio of 131-foot fiberglass blades. But onlookers seem plenty curious, too, about the 295-foot Manitowoc crane that hoists the blades and attached hub - weighing a total of 95,000 pounds - in place on each turbine.
''We thought we were gonna see one of these turbines go up around Ubly first, but it didn't happen,'' said Marvin Messing, 69, of Huron County's Sheridan Township, watching with his wife, Lorene, on Wednesday as crews assembled a turbine tower at Einhardt's farm.
''Michigan has the nation's highest unemployment rate, but its high rating for wind speeds could fan the economy,'' according to Brion Dickens, a member of the Oliver Township Planning Commission.
''Michigan has what (wind-farm investors) classify as the 14th best source of documented winds among the 48 states in the continental U.S.,'' Dickens said.
Local planners said the 32 wind turbines that are part of the Harvest Wind Farm could begin commercial operation this winter.
By TOM GILCHRIST
TIMES WRITER
- Tom Gilchrist covers regional news for The Times. He can be reached at 894-9649 or by e-mail at tgilchrist@bc-times.com.
See the article on Mive.com
