Yesterday Jim Spencer the Chief Executive off Everpower which is headquartered in Pittsburgh put on a great show to formally break ground on a 75 megawatt, $170 million wind farm in the Cambria County. The site in Summerhill and Adams townships is big and bustles with more than construction workers, bulldozers, cranes, heavy trucks.
When the wind farm begins operations in November, 32 Nordex turbines made in the USA will generate enough electricity to supply 32,000 homes. Each turbine supplies 1,000 homes.
The Highland North wind warm is Pennsylvania's 17th and will boost Pennsylvania's total wind power capacity by another 10% to about 825 megawatts.
Local officials attended the ceremony and were excited for good reason. The wind farm will pay $1.8 million in local property taxes and $2.7 million in payments to landowners for leases.
Both Public Utility Commission Chairman Powelson and State Senator Wozniak spoke eloquently during the ceremonies, lauding the wind farm as a major boost to the local economy and a supplier of substantial zero pollution electricity. PUC Commissioner Coleman who is from Cambria county also attended.
Mike Kinski, the Operational Managing Director of Terra Ferma, the major investor in Everpower, also spoke about wind power and Terra Ferma's desire to make more investments in Pennsylvania. Terra Ferman is headquartered in London with investments in renewable energy in Italy and the UK as well as movie theatres in Europe, utilities in Ireland, housing in Japan, cattle ranching in Australia. The battle for renewable energy investment is intense and global.
Yesterday was a great day for Pennsylvania's economy and environment. Building wind farms requires large investments and consumers can make a difference. If you want more wind farms in Pennsylvania, please make sure that you have switched your electricity account to an electricity supplier that is buying its energy from Pennsylvania wind farms.
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