case 'closed' on wind farm in champaign co.

Story by By Hasan Karim-Staff Writer at Springfield News-Sun
Photo from Urbana Daily Citizen

The developer of a proposed wind farm in Champaign County no longer has the certificates needed to build the project.

Attorneys representing the Buckeye Wind LLC and Champaign Wind LLC projects asked the Ohio Power Sitting Board to relinquish certificates that were approved for those projects nearly a decade ago. They also asked to withdraw any pending amendments filed since then.

“From our standpoint, the cases are all closed now and the company no longer has the certificates to construct those facilities,” said Matt Butler, a spokesperson for the board.

The request to relinquish those certificates was filed in September and was approved by the OPSB shortly after. The push to build wind turbines in Champaign County has been controversial and has sparked nearly a decade of debate between residents and county officials.

State officials first approved a certificate allowing the wind farm to be built in March 2010, according to documents filed with the OPSB. However, it included several conditions such as that the original certificate would expire if construction did not begin within five years. An extension to that certificate was approved in 2014.

The Champaign County project was split into two separate phases called Buckeye Wind and Champaign Wind. The projects were first proposed by Everpower, a company whose holdings were recently acquired by Innogy, a German energy company.

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