EcoEnergy of Elgin, Ill., has released plans for an $850 million wind farm in Bristol Township, a rural farming community near the Iowa border in southern Fillmore County. The company has scheduled construction for 2009, assuming the project moves forward as planned, said Paul Roeder of EcoEnergY. The entire project would involve 45,000 acres and more than 250 wind turbines. Each turbine has a capacity to produce 1.5 megawatts.

"It's just a great location. It's got some great wind speed," Roeder said.

EcoEnergy has placed one test tower in the township and has requested a permit for another, this time on land owned by Sean Dols.

Others are also following suit. Fillmore Wind owner Larry Tammel has filed for a test turbine on his land.

The sites are about 50 miles southeast of Rochester.

The Fillmore County Planning Commission will review both test tower requests on July 24 and make a recommenation to the county board, which will probably review them Aug. 5.

Test towers gauge the sufficiency of the turbines and usually have a timeline of three to five years, said Cristal Adkins, an office support specialist with the Fillmore County Zoning Department. The test towers represent the latest in a trend across the southern Minnesota county. Adkins said most of the towers proposed in Fillmore County have been near Bristol Township.

"I think it's a really flat open area, and it seems to be ideal for these towers," Adkins said.

In 2007, two test towers were placed by California-based energy company enXco Inc., one in Bristol Township and one in nearby Harmony Township. EnXco has plans for more towers in southern Minnesota.

"The people in Fillmore County are a great group of people to work with," Roeder said. "They're very visionary."