I had the opportunity to attend a “town hall” meeting in Madison Ohio last week. The topic of discussion; wind energy. Three gentlemen shared a presentation to the people in Madison. Dr. Don Sherer, former President of Green Energy Ohio, Thomas Williams Jr. Managing Director of North Coast Wind & Power and Edward Fleeman of Legacy Renewable Energy Development. The presentation was about 45 minutes long followed by 30 minutes of questions. I must say the 70 -80 people that showed up all seemed fairly positive about the idea of green energy coming to their area. It turns out that Madison and the surrounding area (parts of Geauga and Ashtabula counties) is a prime spot for wind energy development. This area has several items that make it very attractive to wind energy developers. First… wind, duh, ok class 3 wind or better. Second, lots of open land. Most of the area is nursery or other farm land. Third, is close proximity to main power grids. This makes the tie in costs affordable. Here is the rub. It takes a lot of land to develop a commercial wind farm. I mean a loooottt of land. These gentlemen were estimating 1200 acres of contiguous land to be the minimum. If this were Texas or Montana, I don’t think this would be an issue, but in Madison the range is 5 -120 acre lots. This means that the community has to come together and allow their properties to be bundled to provide enough clearances. This is usually the biggest hurdle in wind power development. The rest is mostly government regulations; zoning, environmental, construction permits and such. My impression of the good people of Madison is that green energy may be coming to NE Ohio with Madison leading the way. Smart People. And you wonder why I like living here?