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NEW ULM - A group of landowners in southwestern Nicollet County signaled Friday in a letter to the editor of The Journal that they are going to oppose New Ulm Public Utilities Commission's efforts to establish a wind generation farm in their area.

The 12 landowners said they would attend a hearing on NUPUC's application to install an anemometer near one of the proposed wind turbine sites on property owned by Sharon Hacker in Lafayette Township about 5 miles northwest of Klossner.

"We will voice our many concerns and unanswered questions at the Planning and Zoning meeting in St. Peter on Monday, September 15," they wrote.

"We are not opposed to wind energy and, in fact, think that wind energy is a top choice for electric power going green into the future. However, there are places much better suited than this area for wind turbines," they continued.

"We, the surrounding landowners, including the three landowners who have signed the leases with the New Ulm PUC have opposed this project from the start."

Although the wind turbine generation farm itself isn't a subject of the meeting, individuals who are opposed to the entire project aren't being discouraged from attending, said Mandy Landkamer, Nicollet County's Environmental Services director.

"What is happening is they [NUPUC] have made application for a meteorological tower [for an anemometer to measure and record wind speed]. We, of course, have had a couple phone calls regarding that the tower is all that is going to be on there, but they're still going to come and voice their concerns," Landkamer said.

"The only thing that is going to take place is that the Planning and Zoning is going to make a recommendation based on the meteorological tower application. No wind turbine."

The installation of the anemometer simply is the first step in verifying the wind potential for the wind energy farm site, Utility Planning and Development Engineer Pat Wrase said.

In this case, NUPUC wants to place a tower with an anemometer on it near one of the proposed turbine sites on the Hacker property to develop a track record, so to speak, for a turbine site before it's installed.

"What we have to do is place the tower about 1,000 feet away from where the turbine will be on the prevailing wind side of it," Wrase said. And, of course, the anemometer has to be up there measuring wind speed at the same altitude as the turbine itself which is over 200 feet off the ground.

Wrase said he was surprised to hear of the opposition, particularly including the three property owners who are leasing their land and wind rights to the NUPUC.

"None of them said anything, and they all signed the leases. One of them even sought us out about leasing land even when we were just starting out looking," Wrase said.

Ron Larsen can be reached at rlarsen@nujournal.com