Three planned wind farms in southeastern Nebraska could power 125,000 homes

Source: By The Associated Press • Posted: Monday, December 7, 2015

WILBER, Neb. (AP) — A company has announced that it plans to create three wind farms in southeastern Nebraska.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that Aksamit Resource Management’s projects represent a $725 million investment in Saline, Thayer and Fillmore Counties.

The projects include a 300-megawatt site that will have 150 turbines spread out over 30,000 acres in Saline and Fillmore Counties and a 76-megawatt project that will have 40 turbines on 8,000 acres in Thayer County. Those two projects are scheduled to be operational in 2019.

The larger project wind farm will be built south and east of Milligan. The wind farm in Thayer County will be northeast of Hebron.

A 73-megawatt farm with 40 turbines is planned for Saline County, 10 miles northeast of Milligan. It is expected to be operational within the next two years.

According to the company, the three projects will produce enough energy to power 125,000 homes.

Aksamit announced last week that it has filed with the Southwest Power Pool to hook up two of the wind farms to power transmission lines owned by the Nebraska Public Power District.

Company founder Gary Aksamit said the application was filed with Southwest Power Pool last year and the process takes 18 months. He said the company will go forward with getting all of the necessary governmental construction permits once it has permission to connect to the power grid.