Kossuth County residents question proposed wind farm in southeastern part of county

ALGONA — The placement of wind turbines has become a hot topic in some areas of the state.

There will be a public hearing in Winterset today on a proposed moratorium banning construction of wind turbines in Madison County for the next 27 months. Last Thursday, Kossuth County’s Board of Supervisors held a public hearing about a proposed wind farm in southeastern Kossuth County.

Several people in the crowd asked whether the turbines interfere with television, radio or emergency signals. Tony Wellman, the site manager of an Alliant Energy wind farm in Franklin County, said the company has technicians who can be dispatched to investigate.

“To upgrade antennas, different things like that,” Wellman said, “…different processes for different scenarios, whatever that scenario may be, to help eliminate that TV interference.”

Others in the crowd asked if wind turbines interfere with GPS signals used to guide machinery through farm fields.

“The Franklin County Wind Farm is 181 turbines…All of those locations are right out in agricultural fields, so they’re planting soybeans, corn, so on under the turbines,” Wellman said. “We have not had one GPS interference on a tractor for those 181 turbines.”

The city council in Wesley passed a resolution last month, asking the Kossuth County Board of Supervisors to change the county’s wind energy ordinance and prevent wind turbines from being placed within two miles of a city.