Kittitas County commissioners approved an agreement on Tuesday with a wind energy company that has the firm paying Kittitas County for the staff work required to deal with the development of its wind farm. Invenergy Wind North America LLC, through its subsidiary Vantage Wind Energy LLC, will pay the county $110,000 for handling county requirements for the planned 69-turbine wind farm proposed.

Kittitas County commissioners approved an agreement on Tuesday with a wind energy company that has the firm paying Kittitas County for the staff work required to deal with the development of its wind farm.

Invenergy Wind North America LLC, through its subsidiary Vantage Wind Energy LLC, will pay the county $110,000 for handling county requirements for the planned 69-turbine wind farm proposed for seven miles west of Vantage and 15 miles east of Ellensburg between Interstate 90 and Vantage Highway.

The estimated $200 million to $300 million project was granted approval by the county in May.

Mike Logsdon, Invenergy LLC director of development in Portland, said the county granted a construction permit based on the details of that approval in late October.
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Similar staffing payment agreements have been established between county government and other firms bringing wind farm plans to the county.

Logsdon said Invenergy has hired the firm of Gemma Construction Inc. to coordinate site preparation work and the hiring of local contractors for road building and other earth-moving projects.

He said crews are gearing up for building roads to the wind turbine and tower sites, which includes establishing a rock crushing operation at the wind farm site and gravel stockpiling.

Work should start soon on the site preparation, he said.

"All our work at this point and through the winter, obviously, will be weather dependent," Logsdon said. "It's hard to say how much we will get done in the next few months. Come spring, of course, things will be at a much higher pace."

The goal is to have the wind farm completed in mid-2009 or fall 2009, he said.

The project is on ridgetops about three miles southwest of the existing Wild Horse wind farm owned by Puget Sound Energy, which has 127 turbines and has plans to expand next spring by another 22 turbines.

The Vantage Wind Energy Project will have a maximum generation capacity of 103 megawatts once it is completed.

Invenergy is working on plans for a second wind farm in the vicinity but has not released details to the public.

The Vantage wind farm and plans for a second project are within the county's 500-square-mile wind energy overlay zone. The zone is an area on the county's east end that is pre-identified as being generally compatible for wind farms.

Logsdon said he will have more details at a later date on prime contractors involved in the Vantage wind farm, how many employees are expected to be at the site and other economic impact information.

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