Wind Farm Project in East Idaho

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Story Published: Mar 18, 2008 at 9:20 PM MST

Story Updated: Nov 7, 2008 at 12:20 PM MST

By Rick Montañez

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A wind farm may soon blow its way into the Wolverine Canyon area of Bingham County. The developers of the project held an informational meeting Tuesday in Blackfoot.

About 2 dozen people showed up tonight, most of them land owners in favor of the project, but there were a few people who showed up with concerns.

It's been 7 years in the making, and the proposed wind farm in Bingham county is still years from being completed. In November, the county failed to notify several residents about the public hearing, so the developers had to start fresh.

"Let's start over, let's make sure everybody gets the notice that they're entitled to and do it the right way," says Rich Rayhill, Vice President of Ridgeline Energy.

Ridgeline Energy, based in Seattle with offices in Idaho Falls and Boise, wants to build 150 wind turbines, similar to these and the ones you see in Bonneville County. They're asking Bingham county for just over 20,000 acres, but only plan on using about 200 acres.

"There's a lot of misconceptions about wind energy," says Rayhill.

Some of those include:

"That they're noisy, or that they kill birds or that they reduce property values," adds Rayhill.

But, Ridgeline says that's not the case, if you're a thousand feet away, they only make about as much noise as a library. As for the property, well most of the land owners welcome the idea.

"We need an alternative to make more money or have more revenue into the ranch," says Kelly Bingham, a local land owner.

That revenue will come from a lease agreement to have the turbines built on their land. Property Owners aren't alone, area residents might see more jobs soon.

That's about 30-40 jobs for the project. Ridgeline also has to find a power company to sell to, some possible buyers include, Rocky Mountain, Idaho and Idaho Falls power companies, but there is a chance they're sell to an out of state company.

This proposed wind farm will go before the Bingham County Planning and Zoning Commission next Wednesday.

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