Christine Mikell, the project’s senior manager, said that the company was in the early stages of a process that could take more than five years to win Bureau of Land Management approval.
Things are very preliminary, Mikell said. We’re still collecting [wind] data and looking for a purchasing agreement to sell the power.
The site was chosen based on wind maps produced by the National Renewable Energy Office in Colorado and wind information complied by the state of Utah, Mikell said.
Wasatch Wind Spokesman Lin Alder said that the Spanish Fork site contributes about $112,000 in property taxes to Utah county and revenue generated for Iron county could be higher.
Alder said the project’s timing was good.
Society has shifted dramatically in favor of clean energy resources, Alder said.
Rachel Tueller, a Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman in Cedar city, said that the agency knows about the project but hasn’t received any official application for it.
The company has a three-year lease on the property and hopes to have an application to BLM within that time frame, Mikell said.
I’m very interested in hearing about wind power, New Harmony resident
Barbara Kuhl said. There is so much pollution from the carbon we burn. I’m open to new ideas.
Kuhl hopes others at the meeting also come with open minds.
A lot of people don’t like change, Kuhl said.
