About 10 Freeborn County officials toured Whispering Willow Wind Farm in Franklin County, Iowa, Thursday to gain insight and a firsthand look at how the Bent Tree Wind Farm will look during construction.

Whispering Willow is also being built by Alliant Energy but is about a year ahead of Bent Tree and should be completed and operating by late 2009, said David Engels, manager of wind project development for Wisconsin Power & Light, a subsidiary of Alliant Energy.

“I hope that in many ways the experience of seeing a project of this nature — very, very similar in scope to what we’ll be doing in Freeborn County, and talking with folks who’ve lived through the process — can help us all understand together a little bit and ease some of the anxiety we all can feel when a project of this magnitude comes into the area,” Engels said.

Engels stressed that the meeting was not intended to be a commercial for Alliant Energy, but a chance for officials from the two communities to communicate about what is to be expected during the construction process, and how officials can respond to claims from the community and contractors.

Officials from the two counties first met in the Godfather’s Pizza in Hampton, Iowa, and discussed what Freeborn County residents and officials can expect once construction begins.

One key issue during the construction process is damage to roads. Over the course of the project, many roads have been damaged during construction, Engels said it takes about 150 semi trucks to move in the components for one turbine and the frequent semi traffic can damage roads. But Engels said Alliant Energy will repair the roads and they intend to leave the area in the same condition as they found it.

“Any time anyone’s gone through a construction project of any size, it tends to get worse before it gets better,” said Franklin County Supervisor Jerry Plagge.

Franklin County officials were positive about Alliant Energy’s cooperation in dealing with various issues that arise during construction.

Freeborn County Administrator John Kluever compared the project to renovating his kitchen, which he is currently doing. While the kitchen is currently completely torn out, he said the end product will be worth all the work and construction needed to get there.

After lunch, the group left Godfather’s around 12:30 p.m. for about an hour-long bus tour of the wind farm.

About 66 of the 121 turbines at Whispering Willow have been built, so the tour showed different levels of construction. The first phase of Bent Tree is estimated to be about 122 turbines.

Both wind farms will be about 200-watts of electricity, which would power about 50,000 homes. Both wind farms also have the opportunity for expansion beyond 200-megawatts, and both will uses Vestas V-82 turbines.

The Wisconsin state regulators approved the Bent Tree July 9, but construction can’t begin on Bent Tree until the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission approves both a certificate of need and a site application. If the project is approved, construction could begin in late fall.

Look to the Tribune next week for more on the tour of Whispering Willow Wind Farm and what local residents can expect during the construction of Bent Tree Wind Farm.