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Lyon Co. hears Avangrid wind farm proposal

Company also seeking to lease land in Yellow Medicine County

MARSHALL — Energy company Avangrid Renewables is in the process of acquiring land for a proposed wind project that would affect parts of Yellow Medicine and Lyon counties, Lyon County commissioners learned this week.

A representative of Avangrid spoke about the proposal during the county board’s Tuesday meeting. Jesse Bermel of Avangrid Renewables told commissioners that the company is acquiring leases for land that could be used to build wind turbines.

“We’ve been in the county a few months now,” Bermel said.

He said Avangrid Renewables was looking at land in the western and northwestern parts of Lyon County, as well as in Yellow Medicine County.

There weren’t yet a lot of details on the proposed wind project that Bermel could share with commissioners Tuesday.

“We don’t really know the amount of turbines,” he said.

The total number of wind turbines in the project would be a function of how much land Avangrid Renewables leases. Bermel also didn’t have specifics on the size of the turbines. They could be 2 to 4-megawatt turbines, he said.

The proposed wind project was targeted for construction in 2026, Bermel said.

The proposal had been gaining traction with area landowners over the past three or four months, Bermel said. A landowner meeting held in Ghent drew a crowd of about 90 people, he said.

Avangrid Renewables already has several wind energy projects in southwest and southern Minnesota, eastern South Dakota and northern Iowa.

According to the company’s web site, Avangrid Renewables owns more than 7,000 megawatts of wind and solar power facilities across the U.S. Avangrid is part of a group of companies owned by Iberdrola, an electric utility based in Spain.

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