19,143 Acres Signed to Red Rock
Red Rock Wind Energy’s goal to bring utility-scale, community wind to northwest Iowa, continues to make headway. The project’s strong support has led to increased local participation, with over 100 landowners onboard. In June 2009, Red Rock’s field team signed 1500 additional acres, bringing the current acreage committed to the project to 19,143. With approximately 30,000 contiguous acres needed to effectively develop the project, Red Rock Wind Energy has gained enough momentum to surpass the halfway mark, edging ever closer to the next development phase.
Since July 2008, Red Rock’s field team, consisting of Al Blum, Kristin Ross, Lindsey Pelstring, and Bob Schacherer, has worked within the community to generate landowner involvement. They are now extremely pleased with this progress. “The local support is definitely there and it’s still growing,” commented Pelstring, one of National Wind’s field specialists. “It’s becoming clearer and clearer to residents in the area that this wind energy project is a positive investment in their own community’s economy and worth getting involved in. In that sense, the growing support really speaks for itself.”
“We’re a close knit community here,” adds Blum, Chairman of Red Rock’s Board of Advisors, “and we really listen to each other. When we hear our neighbors and friends getting excited about this project, it’s easy for that excitement to spread and that’s really driving involvement at this point.” That continuing involvement is keeping development on track to meet the goal of signing 25,000 acres by the end of October or early November.
