First Wind, the Massachusetts-based company behind the Steel Winds project, plans to build six more wind turbines this year at the old Bethlehem Steel site.
Without providing a time frame, First Wind spokesman John Lamontagne said, “Our goal is to be able to install six new ones this year, and they would be the same kind that stand there now.”
Each of the eight windmills that dot the Lackawanna-Lake Erie shoreline stand nearly 400 feet tall and generate 2.5 megawatts of power. The additional six, Lamontagne said, would add 15 megawatts of power, and be built just south of the existing ones, with two in Lackawanna and four in Hamburg.
Lamontagne said First Wind is well along in the permitting process, and finalizing details of a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreement, since the project is tax-exempt. He added that these factors are among those that make it difficult to provide a timetable when construction would begin on the new ones.
Lackawanna Mayor Norman Polanski said the PILOT will total around $10,000 per megawatt, or $50,000 annually to the city. Hamburg, he said, would receive $100,000.
A phone message for Hamburg supervisor Steven Walters was not returned.
Polanski said First Wind currently pays $100,000 annually to Lackawanna for the eight original turbines that generate 20 megawatts of power, as well as its share of buzz.
He expects more of the same when the next six are built. And like Lamontagne, said it’s too early to provide a construction start date.
“People are impressed by these, and if we put six more up, I can’t imagine how many phone calls we’ll get,” Polanski said.
Over the last two years, Lamontagne said repairs were made to the turbines. Specifically, gear boxes needed fixing and some blades needed to be strengthened and required reinforcing.
“Any issues the turbines were experiencing have been addressed and are not an issue,” Lamontagne said.
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