Dude, Where’s My Wind Farm?

That’s a question being asked in Lompoc California.  A project approved unanimously by Santa Barbara County supervisors nearly four years ago, Acciona Energy’s 65-turbine wind-farm project slated for portions of Ag land in and around Miguelito Canyon was originally anticipated to be up and running at some point in 2010.

 Thanks to a long list of roadblocks — ranging from lawsuits and slow progress on the permitting front to economic woes and a soon-to-expire federal tax credit — the farm remains stuck in second gear, its fate very much up in the air. “There isn’t really much to report,” explained Acciona spokesperson Eric Schneider last week. “Like many projects across the country right now, Lompoc is in a period of waiting.”

Acciona’s Lompoc project has a lot in common with the now combined St. Lawrence / Cape Vincent wind project. BP and Acciona both submitted their site plan applications in 2006.  Six years and seven project developers later their monster project has not materialized

  However former Planning board Chair Richard Edsall anticipated that wind development in Cape Vincent would be a slow process… 

"This is a slow process going through the Planning Board", he said . "The first wind project could take six months".


 List of the Former& Current SLW& CVWF  Project developers

 Acciona: Todd Hopper, Pete Zedick, Tim Conboy,

BP: Nicholas Hiza, Jim Madden,  Peter Gross, Richard Chandler

Link here to read DUDE WHERE'S MY WINDFARM

Link here to read WDT story TURBINE PLACEMENT SPARKS DEBATE