Turbine firm targeting Spokane County

TYLER – A wind turbine corporation has been acquiring land leases across southern Spokane County from the Tyler area to Fairfield.

Over the last five months, Cordelio Development Holdings LLC of Toronto, Canada, has acquired 20 leases across southern Spokane, northern Whitman and eastern Lincoln Counties.

The purchases include parcels near Cheney, Fairfield, Latah, Waverly and Tyler, according to county records.

Details of some of the purchased tracts have yet to be made public, and company officials have not returned calls seeking comment.

But county records show purchases at the following addresses:

Cheney

• 35111 S. Cheney-Plaza Road, 321.9 acres, parcel No. 21055.9007

• 10619 W. Luke Road, 84.52 acres, parcel No. 22183.9005

Fairfield

• 18606 E. Truax Road, 78.41 acres parcel No. 52301.9002

• 34502 S. Harvard Road, 158.3 acres, parcel No. 51044.9005

• 37510 S. Kelso Road, 78.4 acres, parcel No. 41142.9017

Latah

• 17720 E. Spring Valley Road, 39.59 acres, parcel No. 51302.9030

Tyler

• 8912 N. Jack Brown Road, 92.65, parcel No. 02183.9003

• 8914 Jack Brown Road, 255.8 acres, parcel No. 02195.9002

Cordelio Development Holdings operates under the umbrella of Cordelio Power.

The local lease acquisitions signal a notable expansion of Cordelio's presence in the region, sparking speculation about future turbine developments. And it comes at a time when multiple companies are pushing to build industrial wind turbines in nearby Lincoln and Whitman Counties, among other places in Eastern Washington.

The corporate push for the rural skyscrapers, which can rise to a height of more than 500 feet above the ground - the blades can reach to nearly 700 feet - has area residents, farmers and rural leaders concerned that they are destroying the beauty of the region.

Multiple companies have been approaching farmers with lease agreements to erect wind turbines in the Pullman-Palouse, Fairfield, Davenport, Harrington, Edwall, Reardan, Latah, Tyler and Waverly areas, among others.

Some of those companies are Europe-based Vestas (doing business as Steelhead America) and Triple Oak Power of Portland, Ore.; Tenaska of Omaha, Neb.; and Cordelio. Triple Oak is a subsidiary of Energy Capital Partners of Summit, N.J.

Previous denial

In Spokane County, government and utility officials only a month ago denied the existence of possible turbine developments being planned here, despite meetings taking place in Fairfield and Spangle.

"There aren't any current plans for development of a wind project in Spokane County with Avista," Avista spokesman Jared Webley told the Cheney Free Press on March 5.

Inland officials acknowledged the turbines are controversial across Eastern Washington.

"There's significant opposition from residents who are concerned about the visual impact," Inland spokesman Andy Barth said at the time.

Social media groups have popped up, opposing turbines. They include the Stop Kamiak Butte Industrial Wind Project and the Save the Lincoln County Skyline-Industrial Wind Truths and Education groups

Triple Oaks boasts that it has already amassed 17,000 acres in leases in Lincoln County in the Davenport, Reardan and Harrington areas. Since that announcement, the county has moved forward with plans to make it more difficult to erect a wind turbine.

Other areas

Rural residents in our neck of the woods aren't the only ones in Eastern Washington pushing back against wind turbine permitting and construction.

Residents of Benton County have openly opposed a large industrial wind turbine development atop Horse Heaven Hills Windfarm.

Scout Clean Energy of Boulder, Colo., is the developer behind that project, which has drawn opposition from residents, local officials and even the Yakama Nation, whose reservation is miles away.

For its part, Scout is appealing to the state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council for approval to proceed.

The council was born May 3, 2023, when Gov. Jay Inslee signed House Bill 1216 into law.

The governor requested the bill as an end run around local opposition to such developments, as local opposition stood in the way of his push to require all energy production in the state to come from renewable sources by 2050.