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Mountain Home News

Construction set to start on large-scale wind farm

Saturday, November 21, 2009
Elmore County becomes home to 15 wind turbines, similar to the ones shown here, as part of a 219 megawatt wind farm planned for the Bell Rapids area near Hagerman.

Construction begins in the next several weeks on a large-scale wind farm spanning Elmore and three surrounding counties to provide the state additional renewable energy resources.

Led by the Exergy Development Group based in Montana, the $500 million Idaho Wind Project includes building nearly 150 turbines capable of generating up to 219 megawatts of power.

The project includes building 15 of these wind turbines in the Bell Rapids area near Hagerman roughly a mile within the Elmore County's southeastern border, said company representative Patricia Pilz. A majority of the remaining turbines would remain in Twin Falls County.

During a public hearing Nov. 4, the Elmore County Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved the company's conditional use permit. The commission also approved a height variance request, which the company needed since the towers extend up nearly 400 feet when their blades reach their maximum height.

See the Mountain Home News for the complete story.

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  • We have them here in NH close to me. They are actually quite beautiful to see, they are massive structures..only downfall is if you live near them, you can hear the constant loud humming noise that comes from them.

    -- Posted by newenglander on Sat, Nov 21, 2009, at 3:20 PM

  • Yeah Mike, our ECC's are another bunch that need to be voted out. Most of P & Z is worthless as well (and appointed by the ECC's). Most in office should be voted out. Certainly we cannot do any worse than the 3 stooges we have currently. Hey, if it is dangerous or involves toxic waste---BRING IT TO ELMORE COUNTY!!

    Love to see the wind farms. I would rather look at 500 wind turbines than a nuclear plant stack any day.

    -- Posted by OpinionMissy on Sat, Nov 21, 2009, at 10:00 PM

  • I also vote YES to the wind farms. If need be I will put up with the humming rather than face a radiation leak such as the one reported on CNN at three-mile island yesterday. Why would we even consider nuclear energy, it is not clean or green or anything other than toxic. Haven't we learned anything?

    -- Posted by julyGirl on Mon, Nov 23, 2009, at 2:10 PM

  • We could definately do worse than the ECCs we have now...

    But, thankfully, OM won't run for ANYTHING herself...instead, she just gripes about EVERYTHING.

    -- Posted by mhgirl on Mon, Nov 23, 2009, at 9:18 PM

  • mhgirl, you are an idiot. I do a lot within the community and do not feel I need to run for an office to make a point. What have you done for our community as of late or in the last 10 years? What mhgirl...how have you made life in wonderful EC any better? Who do you hold accountable? You are nothing more than a nameless face behind a computer who has nothing but ignorant things to say in the name of being "annon." God forbid we should know who YOU are. If you cannot sign your name to it---maybe keep it to yourself. Happy holidays to you and yours.

    -- Posted by OpinionMissy on Tue, Nov 24, 2009, at 10:03 AM

  • Glad to see EC is taking advantage of the wonderful opportunity our environment has presented us with.

    OM, I'm sure the folks on the MHN do not appreciate the name calling you resort to.

    -- Posted by lilmissmelmo on Tue, Dec 1, 2009, at 7:38 PM
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