From Root River Energy's Fall 2009 Newsletter...
Root River Energy’s field team, consisting of Jim Connolly and Barry Rogne, are proud to announce that they now have nearly 20,000 acres of land under lease. The project has gained momentum, with 10,000 acres signed in the last few months. This makes Jim and Barry one of National Wind’s most productive field teams during this period. This is now two-thirds of the acres needed to develop a 300 megawatt wind farm. Over 7,600 of these acres are located in our Mower County footprint . Our overall goal is to sign 30,000 contiguous acres.
“We have seen increased interest from the local community over the past several months,” says Rogne. “Part of the amplified interest is due to the fact that landowners are coming to the realization that we have a great offer on the table and that our project has gained significant momentum over the last few months.” Positive landowner relations are essential to having a successful community wind farm project, and that is something the Root River Energy team considers a high priority. For example, a common landowner concern has to do with the design of access roads. Access roads are fundamental to development and need to be constructed to effectively transport wind turbine components to their specific site location.
They also allow operations and maintenance personnel access to the turbine during the life of the project to perform routine inspections that ensure the facility is working properly. “An amendment to the lease has been drafted which commits our development team to designing roads that conform to existing farming practices as much as possible,” adds Rogne. “This means building roadways that run in the same direction as field operations, in order to minimize the loss of efficiency in farming procedures. We definitely allow for landowner input in access road construction; our goal is to work with you to come up with the most viable option.”
The amendment also provides those landowners that do not receive a turbine, an additional payment if access road construction is needed on their property. “As more landowners become involved, local support grows and people realize that ‘hey my neighbor thinks this is a good deal, so I should consider it too’, ” says Rogne. “Word of mouth helps, but now I think we’ve really made some good connections with landowners and we can build on that.
People realize that we are here for the long hall and more importantly that we are here for them and the community.” If you are interested in learning more about Root River Energy, please contact Jim Connolly at 507-259-8841 or Barry Rogne at 507-581-6888.
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