T-R PHOTO BY LANA BRADSTREAM Jackson Frehley with Scout Clean Energy tells the Marshall County Board of Supervisors about the meteorological evaluation towers the company would like to install by Saint Anthony. The supervisors approved conditional use permits for the towers during the regular Wednesday meeting.

Energy was the root of four agenda items at the Marshall County Board of Supervisors regular Wednesday meeting.

The supervisors approved writing a letter of support for the proposed Bobcat Energy Center. Chris Braye with Alliant Energy presented the request for the letter. The energy center represents the next step in Alliant’s commitment to providing safe, reliable and cost-effective energy for Marshall County residents, he said.

Alliant is continuing to invest in a balanced mix of renewable and traditional energy sources to meet the customer demand and support economic growth.

“Once operational the Bobcat Energy Center will support greater reliability and resilience by allowing us to respond quickly to changes in demand and complement our investment in renewable resources and battery storage,” Braye said. “With fast startup times between five and 30 minutes, the facility will run only during peak periods of demand and while the Marshalltown Generating Station runs consistently to deliver energy to our customers.”

Both the Bobcat center and the station are key to Alliant’s balanced strategy to meet demand and pave the way for a strong, resilient energy future, he added.

Supervisor Carol Hibbs asked if she understood correctly that the project had been submitted to the Iowa Utilities Commission (IUC), and what sort of timeline is in place. Braye told her she was correct and added the typical timeline for the IUC to approve is anywhere from six to 12 months.

“LIke you stated, that process has already been started,” he said. “I do believe that early estimations of completion for the project are looking at [quarter] three, [quarter] four of 2029.”

Hibbs said the board of supervisors are enthusiastically supporting the project.

Supervisors also approved three conditional use permits for other wind energy projects. Representatives were present from Scout Clean Energy and MidAmerican Energy to answer any questions.

Zoning Administrator Tyler Kelley, participating virtually, gave a brief overview of the project for two permits, which request temporary meteorological evaluation towers by Saint Anthony as part of Scout Clean Energy’s wind study for the wind energy project. While the county has not received any negative comments regarding the evaluation towers, Kelley added they did receive two regarding overall wind energy within Marshall County.

Jackson Frehley with Scout Clean Energy said work began on the wind energy project in January, and the company has received the strongest interest from landowners than any other Scout project in the Midwest.

“We have signed 35 leases, totaling 11,000 acres, and these are all in various states of being processed by the county recorder,” he said. “It usually takes two to three years to get to that kind of acreage. Overall, this project will probably sign close to 30,000.”

The temporary evaluation towers are designed to measure wind speed, so Scout can ensure the wind speed is what they estimate it to be.

“We hope to install them sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas,” Frehley said. “We’re looking at putting up two towers. We’ve sited them in areas that are best to resource, but are also set significantly back from any houses in the area. All of these are at least 2,000 feet away from any exterior walls of the homes.”

He added the temporary towers will be up for at least two years, but Scout might leave them up until construction starts.

Frehley said Scout plans to connect to a not-yet-built MidAmerican transmission line coming to Marshall County in 2032. He added MidAmerican has not requested bids for the line project yet, but wind energy takes an average of eight years to build, so such actions need to start early.

“So, we are looking at the earliest this project could finish construction is 2032, depending on the final size, it will be somewhere between $1 million to $3 million per year for the county in tax revenue, and $2 million to $4 million per year for the landowners,” he said. “At this point, still incredibly early – just year one of seven to eight years for construction.”

Another energy permit approved by the supervisors is for an aircraft detection lighting system (ALDS) tower in the new Vienna Wind Energy project.

“It will keep the lights off unless an aircraft approaches,” he said. “I think this will take some of the complaints we have received about the flashing lights away, and it will be a good addition to this project.”

Mid-American Energy Project Developer Jill Ingraham said it would turn lights on when low-flying aircraft get within three nautical miles of one of the Vienna turbines. The lights will be turned off when the aircraft leaves the area. She said if the ALDS tower does go down, all of the lights in the Vienna project will turn back on. They hope to have it completed by the end of 2025.

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Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.