RWE Exploring Major Wind Energy Project in Cortland County

During Thursday evening’s Cortland County Legislature meeting in August, Melanie Vilardi, executive director of the Cortland County Industrial Development Agency and Business Development Corporation, spoke to county legislators about a recent development involving a major renewable energy company.

According to Vilardi, RWE, a large German energy company with more than 20,000 employees and U.S. headquarters in Texas, has been reaching out to landowners across Cortland County for the past 18 months.

Vilardi said RWE recently completed a large wind project in Steuben County consisting of 59 turbines across approximately 25,000 acres of leased land. The turbines have a maximum height of 700 feet, and the project has a capacity of 240 megawatts.

“In early spring of this year, they had what they referred to as a ‘land blitz,’ and they had 16 people on the ground signing up leases,” Vilardi said. “They have 4,500 acres leased in Cortland County. They hope to stay west of 81 in the Virgil, Cortlandville, and Harford area, but will go east—they’ll go east of 81 to Willet if they don’t get the land they need west.”

Vilardi said RWE has reached out to Gutchess Lumber and Greek Peak, two major landowners in the county. She added that Greek Peak’s proximity to major power transmission lines could play a significant role in the development of the project.

The land leases being offered are for seven years, with a two-year option, according to Vilardi.

“They currently have a wind project in Munnsville in Madison County, and they’ve been over there since 2007,” Vilardi said. “This project will be seven times larger, so if you’ve driven on Route 20 and are familiar with the windmills over near the Turning Stone.”

Vilardi said the proposed project could take approximately seven years from start to finish. The first two years would involve an interconnection study to determine whether there is sufficient capacity on the electric grid.

Vilardi said she believes RWE has already completed much of the work necessary for that stage but still needs to verify the grid capacity.

“The ORES [Office of Renewable Energy Siting] permit would start soon after that in 2029, goes to the design phase, and the construction phase,” Vilardi said.

RWE has also selected a Texas-based company called Land Access to assist with securing land for the project. According to Vilardi, it is the first time RWE has used the company.

Vilardi said Land Access will be paid a commission based on the leases it secures.

“So any leases they get signed, they’ll be paid; no leases signed, obviously, they don’t get paid,” Vilardi said. “So we expect a pretty aggressive campaign to be going forward in those areas.”

The largest turbines RWE currently operates are rated at 4.5 megawatts and stand approximately 700 feet tall—roughly the height of a 70-story building. Vilardi said RWE has not yet provided her with details regarding the proposed height or generating capacity of the turbines that could be installed in Cortland County.

Legislator William McGovern raised concerns about the possibility of development near Greek Peak, noting that much of the surrounding land is state-owned.

“So are they looking at construction just on private lands, or are they going to take over the Kennedy State Forest, the Tuller Hill State Forest, all the other state lands up there, which are recreation lands that bring people to Cortland County for recreation, that I have personally used many, many, many days and hours on those properties for my own recreation?” McGovern asked. “Are they going to take state land away, too?”

Vilardi said RWE had not indicated that it was considering using state-owned land for the project.

Legislator Paul Heider also voiced strong concerns about RWE’s land-acquisition efforts and its use of Land Access.

“This company is looking to unleash on Cortland County headhunter landmen that are gonna visit old Mrs. McGillicuddy, and old farmers, and people that have no idea, and they’re gonna lie to them like they’ve done in the past month,” Heider said.

Landmen are professionals who negotiate and secure property rights, including leases and easements, for energy and other development projects.

“Bringing in headhunters into Cortland County is unacceptable, and they were told that,” Heider continued. “And I talked to him again this morning, because they were chased out for a week to strategize to come back. When I told him it’s unacceptable for me for them to bring headhunters, he had nothing to say.”

Heider concluded with a warning to county residents.

“So this is a warning: if anybody cares about what’s going on with these turbines, please get yourself up to date,” he said.

According to RWE Americas, the U.S. subsidiary of RWE, the company operates approximately 13 gigawatts of power projects across 27 states.