MILL RUN – What has 115-foot-long blades, a generator that weighs 120,000 pounds and needs a 280-foot crane to put it together? The answer, of course, is a wind turbine generator, something that will produce clean energy without causing noise or any types of smells. ‘It’s clean, renewable energy,’ said project manager Gary Verkleeren of Zilkha Renewable Energy based in Houston, Tex. ‘There are no harmful emissions of any kind, and it’s basically free.’ After the idea was conceived about three years ago, the wind farm in Mill Run will be a reality by the end of August. Actual construction of the 10 wind turbine generators on the site, belonging to the Ray and Wayne Steyer families and located in both Stewart and Springfield Townships, began in May of this year, according to Verkleeren. About two years ago, a meteorological monitoring tower was mounted on the prospective site to collect wind data, according to Verkleeren. Wind speeds of at least 17 mph are needed to generate power from the turbines. After monitoring the site for about 24 months, researchers found the wind speeds averaged out at 19 mph, said Verkleeren. ‘We have a great site,’ he said. ‘This is one of the windiest, if not the windiest, sites on the East Coast.’

Another benefit is that the turbines are very quiet. ‘If you’re standing under them, the only thing you’ll hear is a slight swish of the blade,’ said Verkleeren. ‘When we’re finished, cows will be able to graze at the base of the turbine.’ When construction on the project came to fruition, the first steps taken were site development and the forming of the concrete foundations which will support the turbines that generate 1.5 megawatts of power each and cost between one and two million dollars apiece. The fiberglass blades came from Brazil and were floated along the Atlantic before docking in Delaware, according to Verkleeren. They were brought to the site by truck from Delaware. The turbines used at the Mill Run site are dubbed ‘the Cadillac of turbines,’ by Verkleeren. Each turbine has its very own weather station to monitor wind speed, temperature and direction and is the best turbine to capture the wind at that specific site. They’re the second largest land-based turbines used in the country. ‘You just can’t put up any turbine,’ he said. ‘They’re site specific. We have to balance out the available space with the wind speed to determine what turbine to use.’ The wind farm is unmanned, and if there’s no wind, then the blades won’t rotate, according to Verkleeren. However, they expect them to be stopped in the humid summer days and to generate most of the power in the fall and winter months. Although the site is unmanned, Verkleeren and three others will go back and forth from the Mill Run site and one that will be located in Somerset, to perform scheduled and unscheduled maintenance in order to keep the turbines running at their maximum potential. The turbines work just as a gas generator would, according to Verkleeren. ‘The turbines will be pumping power through a high voltage collection system that’s fed to an interconnection facility where we can begin to supply power to the grid,’ he said. Currently, blocks of power that are generated from the project have been sold by Exelon Power Team to businesses and institutions such as Carnegie Mellon University, according to Verkleeren. Power from the site has already been sold for the next 20 years. Although the total 15 megawatt production can produce enough energy to annually supply approximately 6,000 homes, area residents will not be affected by the wind farm. ‘These will have no impact on residents,’ said Verkleeren. ‘Right now, supplying residents is in the works, but it won’t be plausible until later.’ In other words, the electric bills of area residents will not go up or down and residents will not be able to call up the energy plant and ask for energy generated from the Mill Run wind farm, he said. ‘When it’s finished, this will be one of the most scenic wind farms in the county,’ said Verkleeren. Currently 5 to 6 percent of the total energy used in Germany is supplied by wind-generated, renewable energy. Less than half a percent in the United States is supplied by wind, he said. ‘Wind power will never solve energy demands but it’s a great supplement,’ said Verkleeren. ‘It’s clean, it’s free and the wind always blows just as the sun always shines.’

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