Town of Barton: Windmill farm may be in town’s future

Barton, N.Y.

A windmill farm may be on its way to the Town of Barton, but as to when it will happen is still years away.

The windmill farm is being sought by Gamesa Energy USA, which is the United State’s branch of Gamesa Corp. The company, which is based in Spain, specializes in sustainable energy technologies, mainly wind power.

The company was represented at Monday’s town council meeting by Timothy Vought, who is the director of development for Gamesa’s Atlantic region.

Vought did confirm at that session that Gamesa is looking at developing windmill farms within the Tioga County area, and one such site may be within the town.
“We have talked to landowners,” he said. “We have offered lease agreements. We are very early in our planning stages, so I don’t have a lot of details about what we’re proposing for this area.”

Gamesa USA has been based within the United States since 2002 and its Atlantic region covers Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland, said Vought.

“We are looking at doing windfarms anywhere from 20 to 100 wind turbines per project,” he said.

Gamesa has installed a test tower within the Tioga County region to test wind speed in the area, said Vought.

“We think that this area can sustain a utility-scale wind farm,” he said. “We are also looking at the intervection grid and we think that there is a favorable transmission network to inject power into.”

The components for these windfarms are created by the company’s manufacturing wing, which has four such facilities in Pennsylvania, said Vought.

“We are an experienced company and we have operations in 13 countries around the world,” he said.

The company is looking at the New York area as “one of the big places for growth,” Vought noted.

“We are very early in the process and we are expecting it to take at least three years — most likely four — until we have something ready to go (into operation),” he said.

However, it will be at least a year before the company appears before the town formally to begin the local permitting process, Vought added.

The next meeting of the Barton Town Council will be held at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 10 at the town hall on state Route 17C. The public is invited to attend.