Apex Clean Energy is an independent renewable energy company based in Charlottesville, Virginia. Our mission is to accelerate the shift to clean energy. We develop, construct, own, and operate wind and solar energy facilities across the country. Our team of more than 400 professionals has brought nearly 7 GW of projects into operations to date, powering the equivalent of over 2.5 million American homes annually. Our partners have included major utilities, large corporations such as IKEA, Meta, and McDonald’s, and even the U.S. Army and Department of Defense.

Wind power captures the natural wind in our atmosphere and converts it into mechanical energy, then electricity. This is not exactly
new technology; humans have been harvesting the wind for centuries, starting with windmills that pump water, process grain, and
generate power. Today’s wind turbine is a highly evolved version of a windmill. Modern wind turbines harness wind’s kinetic energy and convert it into
electricity. Most wind turbines have three blades and sit atop a steel tubular tower, and they range from 80-foot-tall models that can
power a single home to utility-scale models that can be up to 700 feet tall and power thousands of homes.

Based on local transmission line capacity, the project is expected to have the capacity to generate up to 250 megawatts (MW) of
homegrown Indiana clean energy, powering up to 75,000 homes annually. Each wind turbine will take up less than an acre of land on average, including its associated access road. Approximately 25,000 acres of land could be leased as part of the project. Wind turbines and access roads would cover less than 1% of land leased.

We are currently evaluating northeastern White County. If you are interested in participating in the project or learning more, email Senior Development Manager Meagan Van Vuren at [email protected] or call 707-227-2902. If you live inside the area of interest, there is no minimum acreage required for a parcel to participate in the project (see below
regarding our community-based lease).

Apex uses an innovative, community-based lease for our projects in the Midwest that spreads some of the financial benefits from the project more broadly among all participating landowners and residents. Under this model, anyone living in the project area is eligible to sign up and see direct monetary benefit from the project, whether you own a single acre and a home, 1,000 acres of farmland, or anything in between. Landowners and community members participating in the project will receive annual lease payments over the projected 30-plus-year lifespan of the wind farm, injecting millions of dollars into the local economy to support family budgets and local businesses.

The project is still in active development, and that process will take several years. Although we do not currently have an estimated date for submission of our permit application or a projected construction timeline, our preliminary goal is for the project to be completed and operational by the end of 2027

The power from the wind farm would be delivered directly onto Indiana’s electrical grid via a nearby transmission line with available capacity. In the Midwest, this grid is called MISO (Midcontinent Independent System Operator). MISO helps connect energy that powers the Midwest to ensure a stable and reliable grid. When you turn on your lights at home, you are pulling power from this robust system. Electricity from this project will mix with electricity from all other generators on the grid. The power generated by the project will be both used locally and sent where it is needed depending on local and regional generation and electricity demand.

No. Project components will only be sited on private properties whose owners sign an agreement with Apex Clean Energy. All agreements are fully voluntary between individual landowners and the project.

Apex Clean Energy develops, constructs, owns, and operates projects across the country. We currently operate approximately 2 GW of wind and solar facilities using local operations and maintenance staff, as well as support from our 24/7 Remote Operations Control Center in Charlottesville, Virginia. Apex does own and operate some projects long term, but it is not uncommon for a local electric utility (NIPSCO, Duke, Indiana Michigan Power, etc.) to be interested in purchasing a wind farm after the completion of construction and operate the facility alongside its other generation sources in the state. A utility could also purchase the power from Apex while we continue to own and operate the facility. The sale of a project to another entity is not a cause for concern. Every agreement and contract signed by the project prior to any potential transfer of ownership will remain in place if a transfer occurs. Commitments made to landowners and local governments will not change and are fully enforceable under the law

It is very early in the development process, so we will not be able to assemble a proposed turbine layout for some time. The project layout will also be dependent on the total number of project participants, setbacks required by township wind ordinances, wetland and environmental studies, and consultations with the FAA. Any layout is also subject to multiple revisions. Layouts are generally solidified in the very late stages of project development, and they are first shared with the participating landowners to identify and address any issues they may have with the project plan for their particular properties. A detailed final site plan will be submitted when the project files for a special exception permit with Hancock County.

When a turbine reaches the end of its useful life, it can be decommissioned (removed) or retrofitted (“repowered”). Typically, local ordinances require wind projects to submit plans for decommissioning the facility at the project owner’s expense. A decommissioning bond is often posted in favor of the county or local jurisdiction and assessed based on the presumed per-turbine cost of removal. Removal is then the responsibility of the project owner, whether that is the original developer, a utility, or another company that may own and operate the project in the future. If something happens to the project owner’s finances in the future, that decommissioning bond is already in place to provide the resources to remove the turbines once they are no longer in use. If the need to remove a turbine or wind farm does arise, every landowner who signs an agreement with Apex is protected from the cost and burden of decommissioning through a protected financial security outlined and required in the easement agreement. Upon decommissioning, the site must also be restored to the same condition it was in prior to construction.

If approved, the project would be one of the largest economic development projects the county has seen in recent years. This includes hundreds of millions of dollars in construction spending, tens of millions of dollars in payments to landowners and community participants, and tens of millions of dollars in new local revenue through economic development agreement and tax payments over the lifetime of the project. Wind energy’s potential economic impact on White and Benton Counties is well documented in a study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, “Economic Impacts from Indiana’s First 1,000 Megawatts of Wind Power,” which found that construction of the first 1,000 MW of wind in Indiana supported $570 million in in-state gross economic activity and more than 4,400 jobs. 

Quite the opposite. Wind energy is the cheapest form of new generation in most parts of the country and can actually help
consumers save money. The cost of wind energy has dropped by over 70% since 2009 (Source: Lazard, “Levelized Cost of Energy
Analysis,” Version 14.0, November 2020).

For a wind project to be successful, there has to be a buyer for the power it will produce. Generally, this electricity is purchased by
utilities, manufacturers, universities, or municipalities that demand large amounts of energy. These large-scale customers buy wind
power because:

• Wind energy is a cost competitive energy source. The input costs for wind don’t change,
because the fuel for wind energy is free.
• Once a project is built, the cost of producing energy remains constant, so power purchase
contracts “lock in” a predictable, steady electricity rate for 15 to 20 years.
• Wind energy is clean, reducing pollution and its associated health impacts
while helping meet local renewable energy goals.

Guiding Torch Wind is a privately funded energy project. No federal cash subsidies or ratepayer dollars will be used to build the project and once built, the project will provide a long-term, competitive source of electricity for the state’s utility grid. Historically, all forms of energy have been incentivized in some fashion. Between 1950 and 2016, 65% of all energy subsidies went to conventional fuel sources. In fact, for every dollar spent on federal energy incentives, less than three cents in tax incentives have gone to support wind energy. Wind energy is eligible for tax incentives via the production tax credit (PTC). Unlike a grant or direct payment to wind energy companies, the PTC reduces tax liability for wind project owners based on the amount of energy produced in the first 10 years of operation. Thus, like all energy incentives, the PTC helps save money for consumers while also creating American jobs in construction, turbine component manufacturing, supply industries, trucking, and more.

The latest and most robust studies show that wind farms do not increase or decrease residential property values. On the other hand, it is well documented that wind farms drive community economic development and provide funding for local schools and services, which benefit all property owners in a hosting community. A major independent study on this topic, released in August 2013 by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, analyzed more than 50,000 home sales near 67 wind facilities in 27 counties across nine states and was unable to uncover any impacts to nearby residential property values. For more, read the study at https://emp.lbl.gov/sites/all/files/lbnl-6362e.pdf.

As wind turbine blades pass through the air, they make a sound that is often described as a “whoosh.” Measurements of this sound show that it is no louder than a kitchen refrigerator or a standard air conditioning unit at a distance of 1,000 feet. Often the sound of a wind turbine on a windy day is indistinguishable from the sounds of the wind rustling through the trees and grass at this distance. (See https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/listen-infographic) The project will comply with Apex’s internal guidelines on sound as well as local township wind ordinance requirements related to sound limitations at residences.

Most low-frequency sound and “infrasound” produced by turbines is significantly below the human hearing threshold. Wind turbine infrasound levels are far lower than those experienced during everyday activities such as traveling in a vehicle, walking by the ocean, or standing outside in the wind. Scientific evidence confirms that this sound is not dangerous and that any low-frequency waves produced are not harmful to those nearby. As reported in a recent study by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health: “… the weight of the evidence suggests no
association between noise from wind turbines and measures of psychological distress or mental health problems.”
(Source: http://www.mass.gov/eea/docs/dep/energy/wind/turbine-impact-study.pdf)

This term refers to the shadows cast by wind turbine blades as they rotate in front of the sun, similar to the shadow cast by a tree blowing in the wind. By positioning wind turbines at a carefully calculated
angle and distance from dwellings, Apex ensures that most homes in a project experience no shadowing at all. For those that do, shadowing will occur for no more than a few minutes per day, on average. Shadowing does not occur on cloudy or foggy days and a typical local wind ordinance might limit shadow flicker to no more than 1% of all daylight hours over an entire year. Some worry that this flicker can cause seizures in photosensitive individuals. However, according to the Epilepsy Foundation’s research, the rate at which wind turbine shadows “flicker” is far below the frequency associated with seizures.

Wind energy is one of the most environmentally friendly forms of electrical generation on the planet. That is because wind energy emits no air or water pollution, requires no mining or drilling for fuels, uses virtually no water, and creates no hazardous or radioactive waste. Clean, renewable wind energy also displaces harmful emissions from fossil fuel plants and offsets carbon emissions, making it a safer generation option for people, wildlife, and natural ecosystems.

While birds unfortunately do occasionally collide with turbine blades, modern wind farms are far less harmful to birds than buildings, communications towers, power lines, and vehicles. In fact, turbines account for only a small fraction, about 0.0003%, of all humanrelated bird deaths. Housecats alone kill 2.4 billion birds a year. (Source: https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2013/08/27/no-evidence-of-residential-property-value-impacts-near-u-s-wind-turbines-a-newberkeley-lab-study-fi nds/)

Nonetheless, Apex works hard to minimize avian impacts through responsible siting. We will work in close consultation with federal and state environmental agencies and use targeted conservation measures to ensure that the project has no signifi cant effects on bird
or bat populations.