Seeds for wind farming planted on Fruit Ridge

As West Michigan manufacturers and alternative energy leaders slowly move the region toward production of clean energy components and equipment, a Spain-based company has already been at work for two years securing wind rights from farmers in northern Ottawa County. Seems local leaders’ vision for creating demand for renewable energy companies and the economic boost they could bring to the region is right on the mark.

According to excerpts from the story:

CHESTER TOWNSHIP — It turns out the high ground that makes the well-known Fruit Ridge area across northern Kent and Ottawa counties good for fruit-growing is also good for another kind of "farming" — commercial wind farms, where turbines on tall towers generate electricity.

Iberdrola Renewables of Spain, reportedly the world's largest wind farm developer, received permission in late April from Chester Township to start construction within 90 days of a test tower on a two-acre parcel it is leasing on 8th Avenue near Gooding Street, in northeast Ottawa County.

Read the complete story here.