(Spirit Lake)– Officials with a Florida-based wind energy development company today (Tues.) announced plans for a large wind farm it wants to build in Clay, Dickinson and Osceola counties.
NEXTera Energy of Juno Beach, Florida wants to build a 250 megawatt wind farm consisting of 167 turbines that would encompass land in all three counties. 64 turbines are being proposed for the southwestern portion of Dickinson county.
Anthony Pedroni, Project Director for NEXTera Energy, formerly Florida Power and Light, and another representative of the company, Ted Weisman, presented their preliminary plans today (Tues.) to the Dickinson county board of supervisors.
Pedroni says the project is on a fast track. He says construction could start as soon as this coming spring, depending on how things go. He says the company is currently in the progress of securing the necessary zoning permits from all three counties, along with permission to connect to an existing high voltage transmission line in the area of the proposed farm; along with various approvals from various state and federal agencies. Pedroni says they’ve already signed contracts with a number of landowners, and that they hope to have the local permits in place by Christmas.
Pedroni says the project will reprsesent a half billion dollar investment in the region when it’s all said and done. He says it will translate into a substantial amount of property tax revenue for the counties. Pedroni estimates each turbine will produce about 430,000 to 440,000 dollars in tax revenues over the 30 year life of the revenue. For Dickinson county alone he says it would amount to more than 20 million dollars over the 30 years.
Pedroni says informational meetings will be held with landowners in each of the three counties in November and or December.
