By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
There are a lot of moving parts to Bowling Green’s electric power system. Unfortunately, the city’s wind turbines are no longer moving enough to produce the power they once generated.
City leaders have known the end was coming for the iconic wind turbines west of Bowling Green, erected 21 years ago on acreage owned by Wood County at the county landfill.
While it likely means an end to wind generated power by the city, it is opening the door to more solar power, according to Brian O’Connell, director of public infrastructure and utilities for Bowling Green.
O’Connell talked about the future of BG power generation on Thursday to the Bowling Green Kiwanis Club.
After years of limping along, the four giant wind turbines will cease to spin next year. O’Connell assured that the turbines would be allowed to lumber along till they stop.
“We will keep them going as long as possible,” he said.
But the public should not expect the turbines to set any records.
“The units are obsolete,” O’Connell said. “You can’t go down to O’Reilly’s and get a new part.”
The project has been a success for Bowling Green as a green energy source and a statement of the city’s values. The city had the distinction of being home to Ohio’s first utility-sized wind farm.
“The wind turbines have been a landmark on our western horizon for two decades,” O’Connell said.
Several factors have led to the close of the wind project.
First the towering turbines have reached their lifespan of 20 years. Second, the company maintaining the equipment will no longer cover repairs after 2025. And third, the cost of repairs have become unaffordable.
Replacing the turbines is not a good solution because Ohio siting rules on setbacks would now only allow two turbines where there are currently four – which wouldn’t generate enough electricity.
Plus the costs are steep. When the wind turbines were erected, they cost about $2 million a piece. In 2020, the cost to replace them with newer models was estimated at $8.8 million a piece.
At the same time, Wood County officials have decided the wind turbine acreage is needed for expansion of the county landfill.
So that leaves the city looking to construct a solar field a bit north – on 40 acres owned by Bowling Green at the northwest corner of West Poe Road and Green Road. Though the solar field won’t be a visual landmark like the tall turbines, it could generate 5.5MW, more power than the wind turbines, O’Connell said.
“A solar field might have a little bit more output,” he said.
And the siting of a solar field has far fewer hoops to jump through than wind turbine farms. If all goes as planned, the solar panels could be up and running later in 2025.
“Solar doesn’t take long to put up,” O’Connell said.
The new solar field would be connected to the city’s distribution circuit on Poe Road and would provide peak shaving value. Solar is a better peaking resource, since it generates energy at times when customer demand is higher.
The Bowling Green Board of Utilities has supported the city’s continued efforts to use green energy sources, with 41% of the city’s power currently coming from hydro, solar and wind projects.
The original capacity of the wind turbine project was 7.2MW – which was enough to supply electricity for approximately 2,500 residential customers. The energy production was cut to 5.4 MW in 2021 when one of the turbines was retired early due to the expense of repairs.
When that turbine ceased to spin in 2021, the city was given an estimate of more than $500,000 to repair it. Calculations of lifespan versus costs showed it was best to let it go.
“The operations performance has decreased as they have gotten older,” O’Connell said.
The wind turbines put Bowling Green on the map for renewable energy more than two decades ago when it became the first city-owned wind farm in Ohio.
Then in 2017, Bowling Green partnered with American Municipal Power for the 20MW solar field east of the city on Carter Road. At the time, that project was the largest public solar field in the state.
“Sorry to report the retirement date is coming up – but it’s time,” O’Connell said of the turbines. “Nobody wants to see them go. But we knew going into it they weren’t going to be there forever.”
