While Washington County is no longer a major part of the formerly named “Washington-Republic Wind Farm,” NextEra Energy Resources project manager Dan Scheffler said the Florida-based company is still evaluating Washington County for wind energy development.
In the process of completing their due diligence for the original Washington-Republic project, which was first announced back in 2016, Scheffler said they found out there were conflicts with the Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Defense because of military training routes in the area. He said a couple of the routes were within the original projected boundaries of the wind farm.
As a result, they had to shift the project to the west, with most of the wind farm plan to be located in Republic County. Many of the landowner contracts were dropped when the shift was made.
Washington County is not totally out of the picture, however. Scheffler said there will be pockets of turbines in Washington County, where it is suitable with the FAA and DoD conflicts and with landowner support.
The new wind farm effort is yet to be named, but will be a 600 megawatt wind farm with plans to come online in 2023.
Because of their previous effort here, Scheffler said they know the area and will be reaching out to landowners who are in the new footprint of the wind farm.