The three wind turbines on Perry’s south side, built one year ago, should soon start spinning full time, according to the developer who brought them to town.
Kurtis Sherer, vice president of North American sales for the Chinese turbine manufacturer HZ Windpower, said Friday the company has one last regulatory hoop to jump through before their energy starts flowing to the new Alliant Energy electricity substation west of Perry.
So when will the windmills start spinning?
“Should be in February,” Sherer said. “We’re going through certification of the turbines so that we can close the permit, and then we’ll start running. It’s just a process we’re going through. They’ve been pre-commissioned. They’re ready to flip the switch. We’re just waiting for a signature.”
The outstanding signature is expected soon from the Iowa Department of Public Safety, said Sherer, whose company is a subsidiary of CSIC, the Chinese state-owned shipbuilding and equipment manufacturing conglomerate, one of the 100 largest companies in China.
Perry’s three turbines stand east of K Avenue on either side of 150th Street on farm ground annexed into the city in 2015 for the sake of the windmills. The turbines turned for a few hours last month, as reported in ThePerryNews.com.
“It was pre-commission work,” Sherer said. “They’re hooked up to Alliant and ready to go, pre-tested. Everything’s fine. We’re just waiting on certification so that we can sign off on a permit and start running.”
The three 447-foot turbines were built by the Michels Corp., the same company that has spent two years rewiring Perry’s electrical power lines for the new $15 million substation. When finished, the new substation will double the town’s capacity from 12.5 kilovolts to 25 kilovolts, according to an Alliant spokesperson.
The three turbines will contribute 6 megawatts of power to the new Perry grid. By contrast, MidAmerican Energy is planning an 85-turbine wind farm that will straddle the Greene County-Boone County line north of U.S. Highway 30 and will produce about 170 megawatts.
“We’re not involved in that at all,” Sherer said. “We’ve got some that are going up in Iowa this year, and we’re doing some development in other states, so all in all things are going pretty good.”
