To everything there is a season, said the preacher, and a time to every purpose under the heaven, including a time to be still and a time to turn, and the wind turbines on Perry’s southeast side have finally found their time to turn.
Construction of the 447-foot giants began just over one year ago, and the three towering turbines have stood motionless ever since. Until Tuesday.
The turbines are owned by Marshall Wind Energy. Kurtis Sherer of Norwalk, a partner in Marshall Wind Energy, told ThePerryNews.com last May the turbines would start to spin in June or July, but those six months have gone with the wind.
Marshall Wind Energy was formed by two other wind turbine developers, Goodwind Energy, a Norwalk subsidiary of Chinese turbine manufacturer HZ Windpower, and Optimum Renewables, a Des Moines firm specializing in prospecting and financing wind-energy projects.
The three towers stand east of K Avenue, with one north of 150th Street and two south. The land for the turbines was annexed into the city of Perry for the sake of the windmills, and Marshall Wind rents the land from landowners Mavis Struyk of Perry and William and Lynn Knoll of Dallas Center.
Other property owners along K Avenue challenged the city’s approval of the turbines’ building permits and sought a restraining order to stop construction, but they lost their case. The erections were completed early in 2016, and two of the three turbines turned Tuesday for a few hours.
They stopped turning around sundown.
The Michels Corp. built the wind turbines for Marshall Wind Energy. Michels is the same company that has spent the last 18 months rewiring Perry’s electrical power lines for Alliant Energy. All the new lines — and the turbines — will eventually connect to the new Alliant substation west of Perry.
When finished, the new substation will consolidate into one unit Perry’s seven smaller substations and will double the town’s capacity from 12.5 kilovolts to 25 kilovolts, according to Alliant Energy Key Account Manager Annette Renaud, who first briefed the Perry City Council on the $15 million project almost two years ago.
The new substation is located just south of Tyson Fresh Meats at Iowa Highway 141 and I Court. Its construction has required an extensive rewiring of Perry’s electricity infrastructure, including the placement of 889 new power poles and 16 miles of new wire.
My first choice would have been “All Along the Wind Tower.” I preferred Hendrix myself.
When we get to the point of consistent wind power, maybe the city could ask Tesla to place a couple of wind-powered charging stations downtown to pull tourist traffic from I80/I35 for some shopping or an overnight at the Hotel Pattee.