First Wind collects permits for 58 turbines

First Wind applied Friday for building permits to install 58 turbines at the company’s Naff Ridge wind farm. County commissioners Monday then approved the route by which the company will transport the turbines to the site.

“We’re on the cusp of letting them go with everything now,” Public Works Director Mark Storey said of the 8-inch thick package of required compliance matters for the project.

The turbines, valued in the permit application at $2 million apiece, will be moved by train from the Colorado factory where they are made to a rail yard in Pasco.

From there, they will travel north up Highway 395, east on Highway 26 and then north again on 195.

Most of the turbines will be delivered from 195 via Baird Road, at the wind farm’s main entrance. Turbines bound for the southern portion of the project will be delivered by Oakesdale Road.

Storey said the plan was to avoid traveling through Oakesdale.

Ben Fairbanks, northwest business development manager for First Wind, said the turbines should begin arriving at Pasco as soon as June. He was uncertain if they would be moved up to the Naff Ridge wind farm immediately after reaching Pasco or if they would be in a lot there.

“It will all depend on how ready the site is at that point,” said Fairbanks.

Crews began preparing roads and pads for the turbines in October and were able to work up until Christmas because of the dry winter.

A wet spring, though, could set the clock back, said Fairbanks.

“We’re still ahead of where we expected to be. But who knows what will happen in the spring.”

First Wind in November purchased the turbines from manufacturer Vestas. County Building Official Dan Gladwill and his staff are now reviewing the building permit applications. Storey estimated the county would receive up to $94,000 in permit fees.

The county in February approved an amendment to the building permit fee ordinance which is believed to reduce the fee costs from $20,000 per turbine to between $3,000 and $5,000 for just the base.

The concrete base for each turbine will be 60-feet by 60-feet and will be buried 10 feet to 12-feet deep.

Storey added First Wind’s engineered plans call for minimal impact to native Palouse Prairie habitat, one of the prime concerns of the project’s critics during the company’s conditional use permit application phase.

“I don’t think they’re impacting any of the native Palouse Prairie. If they are, it’s a real small corner,” he said.

Fairbanks said the company made a conscious effort to work around the prairie patches.

“Until we’ve completed all the civil work in those areas, it’s hard to say for certain,” said Fairbanks. “But the plan right now doesn’t have us disturbing any of the prairie sites.”

The Palouse Wind farm is expected to be up and running by fall. First Wind signed a 30-year contract with Avista last year to deliver an average of 40 megawatts of electricity.