Armenia - Wind turbine projects to go ahead

During the last Armenia Township supervisors’ meeting, the supervisors reviewed a letter from Bradford County giving conditional preliminary approval to AES Armenia Mountain Wind, LLC, which is the company building the wind farm. The approval was given last year, and now the company is meeting, or “clearing,” the various conditions, Robert J. White, the vice president of AES Armenia Mountain Wind, LLC, said.

“We’re in the process of getting that information together to provide to them,” he said. He noted that Tioga County gave AES the same type of approval. In Tioga County, the project is in Ward and Sullivan townships. The project involves the construction of 125 wind turbines, with 52 of them in Armenia Township. “We are happy,” White said. “We’re glad to have received that from both counties ... and we look forward to providing them information to clear the conditions and move forward with construction of the project.”

White confirmed that the Tioga Preservation Group, based in Tioga County, has appealed Tioga County’s conditional OK, however. He said AES has responded in writing, but there have been no oral arguments. He declined further comment. Frank Piccolella of Liberty, with Tioga Preservation Group, confirmed the group appealed the conditional OK given in Tioga County, but he declined to elaborate Monday night. According to a handout provided earlier from AES, the project would be approximately 150 MW in size and the electricity produced would serve about 47,000 homes.

AES is based in Arlington, Va., and is one of the world’s largest global power companies with 25 years of experience developing, constructing, financing and operating power projects with operations in 26 countries and 123 generation plants, according to an AES description.