Wind farm coming to eastern Freeborn County

Published 11:01 am Sunday, April 26, 2015

Freeborn County officials have received word of a 200-megawatt wind farm proposed to be constructed in eastern Freeborn County.

The proposed project, called the Freeborn Wind Energy Project, would be built on an  approximately 40,000-acre site, about 1 1/2 miles east of Glenville, according to a letter sent to Freeborn County officials by Barr Engineering firm in Minneapolis, which was hired to help with the environmental permit.

The project has boundaries on the south at the Minnesota Iowa border, on the northeast near Hayward and on the east past Myrtle, all in Freeborn County, according to a proposed map of the project’s footprint.

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Freeborn County Administrator John Kluever said the wind farm, by Invenergy LLC., would be similar in size to the Bent Tree Wind Farm north of Albert Lea.

According to its website, Invenergy is North America’s largest independent wind power generation company and is headquartered in Chicago. The site stated the company has more than 6,700 megawatts of projects in operation, with more than 2,300 megawatts under contract or in construction.

The letter said Invenergy plans to file its application to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission in October. It plans to be operating by December 2016.