Fourteen years ago, Van Wert was just another flat, rural town in Ohio. Today, it’s home to Blue Creek Wind Farm, the state’s first commercial wind farm. Spanning 80 square miles, it consists of 152 wind turbines that generate enough electricity to power 500 homes on a footprint smaller than one acre apiece.
Getting there wasn’t easy. When Blue Creek was first proposed, the project divided Van Wert residents—for some, it still does. But for those who look at the data, the farm’s positive impact on the town has been hard to ignore.
A closer look at the benefits
Blue Creek has had a ripple effect on local businesses in Van Wert. Brent Stevens, Executive Director of Van Wert Economic Development and Van Wert resident, has watched this play out first hand.
“All of our hotels filled up because of the workforce coming to town,” he says. “Several quarries got a tremendous amount of orders because they needed gravel for the temporary roads. When trucks haul those big blades around corners, they need to drive out into the field so they put gravel down to support that.”
The biggest economic benefits, however, go to local schools. Public school districts often struggle to generate local tax revenue, and wind energy projects can help them fund building upgrades and technology without raising local taxes.
“It has provided our local school districts with a tremendous amount of income,” Stevens says. “They’re getting about $1 million added to their budget annually.”
Homeowners have seen benefits as well. If a wind turbine sits on their property—they technically lease the land to Blue Creek—they get a payment for each turbine. These payments equate to roughly $2 million annually in lease payments to local landowners.
Environmentally, the wind farm helps reduce water consumption in Van Wert. Avangrid, the project owner, reports that Blue Creek avoids the consumption of 408 million gallons of water per year, since wind turbines don’t need water to cool steam turbines the way coal and natural gas plants do.
Benefits aside, the wind farm has been a divisive topic among Van Wert residents for several reasons.
Addressing the pushback
When Blue Creek Wind Farm was first proposed more than 15 years ago, Stevens says, Van Wert residents were largely in favor of it. But as time went on, the narrative started to shift.
“There is a lot of false information out there and we’ve lost opportunities because of it,” he explains. “People started worrying about birds getting killed and saying the blinking red lights were a disturbance to residents.”
Blinking lights, wildlife safety, and property value have been common concerns for residents. In fact, Blue Creek spurred a local Citizens for Clear Skies chapter—an organization that opposes building wind farms near residential communities—to form.
“... I’m supposed to take a 30% property value hit on my home, which I probably have the most capital invested in my entire life?” Jeremy Kitson, member of the organization, shared with a local news outlet. “No, I am not going to do that.”
A 2024 study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, the German Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and the Italian Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici analyzed data from 300 million home sales and 60,000 wind turbines from 1997 to 2020. They found only a 1% impact on home values within view of a turbine.
And while there have been confirmed bat and bird fatalities at Blue Creek Wind Farm, a 2022 report from Western Ecosystems Technology states they have fallen within federally permitted limits. Avangrid, the owner of Blue Creek Wind Farm, performs research and collaborates with other organizations to develop wind energy projects responsibly.
Back in 2008, the organization released an Avian and Bat Protection Plan (ABPP), aiming to minimize the impact wind turbines have on birds and bats. In a 2011 report, the organization said it compares bird and bat casualty data on one site with other sites to get deeper insights into the overall impact of wind projects.
For nearly 20 years, Avangrid has been perfecting its approach to wildlife safety in the wind sector. Stevens trusts the organization’s approach, and feels secure about the safety of birds and bats in Van Wert. As far as he knows, there haven’t been mass bird casualties at the bottom of each turbine, and blinking lights haven’t caused the disruptions people feared.
In his view, using renewable energy is worth the risk.
“When I came to town, wind energy was problematic and solar energy was problematic. I disagree with that,” he says. “I’m a believer that we need power from every possible solution at this point in time.”
