Idaho Wind Farm Gains Support

February 4, 2004 [SolarAccess.com] After passing the county’s planning and zoning board, a wind turbine project was granted permission to be built in Bingham County, according to the Idaho Falls Post Register. The 100 MW wind farm, proposed by developers Ridgeline Energy and Airtricity, will span a 30,000-acre area along the Bingham/Bonneville county line east of Shelley and Idaho Falls. The special-use permit, granted unanimously by the board, provides for the developers to build around a third of what could be the state’s first utility-scale wind farm in Idaho. The developers will still need to secure approval from Bonneville County’s board. As with many wind farms, the project will operate in concert with local farming communities, taking up minimal land space in between farming plots. It will in turn provide a source of steady income to farmers that lease the land. This apparently went over well at local meetings. At the Bingham County meeting, the Idaho Falls Post Register reported that around 10 people testified in favor of the project, citing its economic and environmental benefits, and no one spoke in opposition to the wind farm at the Blackfoot meeting.