THE BAY CITY TIMES

State's first commercial windmill farm starts churning out power in Huron County

Stella S. Lee | Times Photo Humming along: Wind Turbines in Pigeon convert wind into power. The Harvest Wind Farm, owned by John Deere Wind Energy, can churn out enough energy to power 15,000 homes. A total of 32 windmills were installed last year in Huron County , representing an investment of more than $90 million, local planners say.

ELKTON - The hum is music to Bob Krohn's ears.

Krohn, a Huron County farmer, has three windmills on his land, spinning as part of the Harvest Wind Farm near Elkton.

Krohn, also the Oliver Township clerk in Huron County , said the Harvest project has been up and running for about a week, generating green power after about two months of testing.

"Last night, I came home from the township meeting and I could hear them a little, a light humming noise in the distance," Krohn said Wednesday, adding that the noise doesn't bother him at all.

Harvest, owned by John Deere Wind Energy, is the state's first commercial wind farm.

A total of 32 windmills were installed last year on 3,200 acres in Huron County 's Oliver and Chandler townships, representing an investment of more than $90 million, local planners say.

Farmers who leased their land for windmill plots will share in the sale of power generated by the 1.65-megawatt turbines.

Developers have been silent on the project in recent months.

The Tim es has been unable to reach Brian Baker, Harvest site manager, for comment.

A Big Rapids dealer involved with the project declined comment on Wednesday. So did Nancy Tanner, with Wolverine Power Cooperative, which is purchasing electricity from the big blades.

Harvest has a total capacity of about 53 megawatts, enough to power more than 15,000 homes.

Krohn said a few of the windmills aren't spinning right now. But that's routine - some of the turbines will always be down for maintenance.

Capacitors and other equipment had to be installed to allow the windmills to connect to the power grid, Krohn said.

"Right now, they're on and generating power," Krohn said Wednesday.

"They're going on the grid. John Deere told us it was one of their better projects in the whole United States ."

Krohn said he's not sure how large his power payments will be, but the first payments are due to farmers in about six months.

Other farmers have said the payments will be about $3,000 per year per windmill.

"That's going to be nice for us farmers," Krohn said of the cash, "to get started for the spring, to give us some seed money."

Krohn said long-delayed construction of another 46-turbine wind farm, to be built by Noble Environmental Power near Ubly, is slated for the spring.

He said the Harvest and Noble projects make for exciting times in the Thumb.

"We're going to have a lot more up here, let me tell you," he said. "There's going to be hundreds of them."