Twin Groves One Wind Farm was completed in 2008. After 12 years the company was required by an agreement it signed to put $25,000 per tower in an escrow account to cover future decommissioning obligations. Among other things these obligations include removing the tower and it’s concrete base.
Twin Groves never deposited the funds. That deposit is three years in arrears.
If not for a January 20 letter from McLean County Farm Bureau President Brian D Dirks to State’s Attorney Erica Reynolds the matter might still be unsettled.
Newly appointed McLean County Land Use Committee Chair Lea Cline received a copy of the letter and contacted Assistant State’s Attorney Christopher Spanos to discuss the matter.
Cline worked with Spanos and attorneys for EDP Renewals (EDPR), the owner of the Twin Groves Wind Farm, and JP Morgan, EDPR’s bank, to reach an agreement.
Cline told told us. “It took about a month and a half or so of really pushing.”
The McLean County Board approved the agreement on Thursday evening and as a result the money should be deposited into an escrow account within ten days.
The agreement also covers the Twin Groves Two Wind Farm, also owned by EDPR, and the White Oak Wind Farm owned by NextEra Energy. Deposits for those two farms were not past due but were coming due soon.
In accordance with the agreement EDPR will deposit a total of $6 million into escrow accounts for Twin Groves One and Two. NextEra will deposit $2.5 million into an account for White Oak.
This ensures that all three farms will be decommissioned appropriately when that time comes.
Regarding the agreement County Board Executive Commitee member Chuck Erickson told us, “I don’t have any problem with the way it is. I voted for it tonight. It’s the best we could get at this point. I am happy with it. And sometimes you take what you can get and you move on.”
“The bottom line, the original Special Use Permit (SUP) that this company (EDPR) signed with the county to put in their wind farm said $25,000 per turbine for decommissioning,” Cline stated. “We now at the execution of this contract will have $25,000 per turbine.”
“So we haven’t lost anything … The money is still the same amount that they agreed to,” Cline concluded. “So we haven’t lost it, in that regard.”
“We fixed it,” Erickson added. “That’s the bottom line. It got fixed.”
