CLYDE, Ohio — A plan to erect three commercial-scale wind turbines on farmland just outside of Clyde has drawn stiff opposition from area residents, some of whom fear the machines could diminish their property values and impact their rural lifestyles.

Whirlpool Corp., Clyde’s largest employer, entered into an agreement in January with Findlay-based One Energy to have three of the wind industry’s largest turbines installed in that area to produce electricity for the company’s factory within the city limits.

Each of the turbines will be about 600 feet tall and have a generating capacity of 4.8 megawatts, or nearly 15 megawatts total among the three of them. There also are plans for ground-based solar arrays capable of producing 6 megawatts of electricity.

Together, the wind turbines and solar arrays will produce 70 to 80 percent of the Clyde factory’s electricity, mostly from wind power, Jereme Kent, One Energy chief executive officer, said.

A rough outline of the plan was presented Monday night at a public meeting inside Sandusky County’s tiny York Township Hall that was attended by a standing-room-only crowd of more than 100 people. It lasted 2.5 hours.

Mr. Kent described it as a “productive meeting” for local residents who wanted to learn about the project, despite myriad objections raised by people who oppose wind power.

During the meeting, word got out that property owned by York Township Board of Trustees Chairman Doug Keegan might be used for the project.

In a telephone interview on Tuesday, Mr. Keegan confirmed he has land under consideration but declined to say if it has been identified as the preferred site or if he is under active negotiations to lease or sell it.

“I cannot answer that,” he said.

Mr. Keegan did not attend that meeting, saying that he had another commitment. The meeting was announced as strictly an information session, with no vote being taken. The other two trustees, Vice Chairman Zach Dauch and Lee Watson, were there.

Sandusky County Auditor’s Office records show 15 properties under Mr. Keegan’s name, eight in York Township.

Mr. Keegan said he’s of the belief that “a lot of farmers in the area” have been talking to One Energy and/or Whirlpool and said he owns property “in the area they’re considering,” but would not discuss which parcels or confirm if any talks are occurring.

Mr. Kent told The Blade in an interview a few hours before Monday night’s meeting that a preferred site has been identified, but he said he is not disclosing the owner or the location until the deal is finalized.

The project differs from what his company normally does in that the three Whirlpool turbines are be erected on farmland east of Clyde. One Energy has a business model focused on large industrial users and normally focuses on industrial sites.

In this case, though, Whirlpool’s factory in Clyde, where washing machines are manufactured within the city limits, is too close to the Sandusky County Regional Airport to comply with Federal Aviation Administration restrictions.

So the plan is to erect the turbines on land east of the factory, far enough away to meet FAA requirements, Mr. Kent said.

“We had to look at land on the east side of Clyde to make the project viable,” Mr. Kent said. 

Whirlpool said in a statement that its commitment to cleaner energy goes back to 1969, when then-CEO Bud Gray outlined the importance of environmental sustainability. It said the company’s commitment to lower air emissions “is a direct reflection of that commitment to consumers and the communities where we do business.”

“The use of clean, renewable energy reduces Whirlpool Corporation’s carbon footprint as well as demand on an increasingly overloaded electric grid. It also enables growth and the preservation of manufacturing jobs,” the company said. “Whirlpool was the first appliance manufacturer to set an emissions reduction target [in 2003], and we are on track to achieve our commitment of Net Zero emissions in our plants and operations by 2030.”

Jeannie Fleming Gore, 66, said she and other residents of the area are concerned about property values, the region’s fragile karst geology, the potential impact on bird migration, possible impacts on homeowner insurance rates, and other issues.

They also feel powerless because York Township has no zoning, she said.

“Everybody's kind of thinking it's a done deal now,” Ms. Gore said.

Mark Shieldcastle, Black Swamp Bird Observatory research director, said the project reminds him of when three commercial-scale wind turbines were installed a year ago at the Martin Marietta lime plant in Sandusky County’s Woodville Township.

Those were shorter ones and built on the Martin Marietta site. But in both cases, projects are designed to produce less than the 20-megawatt total of electricity that would require an Ohio Power Siting Board permit.

Mr. Shieldcaste called that a loophole in the law that should be fixed, though conceding it’s perfectly legal to be done as long as it’s allowed.

“You can't fault them for finding this loophole and taking advantage of it,” he said. “There’s nothing to keep them from doing it, other than peer pressure.”

Mr. Shieldcastle was for years in charge of Ohio’s bald eagle recovery program while working for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

He said that dealing with the wind industry is “probably the most frustrating thing” he’s encountered in his career because he believes there still isn’t enough data on how wind turbines impact wildlife, especially birds and bats.

Northwest Ohio is one of the country’s most important regions for migratory birds.

“The bird issues are all the same,” Mr. Shieldcastle said. “All we can do is ask for them to be responsible.”

Others taking an interest in the project include members of the Seneca Anti-Wind Union, who successfully rallied together to fend off efforts to build a major wind farm in neighboring Seneca County several years ago.

The goal is to have the three wind turbines and the large solar array producing electricity on the York Township property for the Whirlpool factory sometime in 2025, Mr. Kent said.

There’s a similar timeline in place for a three-turbine expansion Whirlpool is doing outside of its Findlay factory, near One Energy’s headquarters.

Whirlpool currently owns two of the 10 wind turbines on an industrial site in Findlay called the North Findlay Wind Campus.

Six are owned by Ball Corp., an aluminum packaging company.

The other two turbines are owned by Valgroup, a plastics company.

Whirlpool’s expansion will bring its total of wind turbines at that site to five.

The company said it has onsite wind turbines at its other Ohio plants in Marion, Greenville, and Ottawa.

First Published September 10, 2024, 7:22 p.m.