IN THE NEWS:
October 2008. Freedom Wind Energy, LLC and its partner, Babcock & Brown, LLC, continue tweaking turbine layout to minimize impact to ATV paths and maximize rider safety. Foundation design change due to change in turbine order.
June 2007. Freedom Wind Energy negotiates additional sites for windpark development in three states. Nameplate capacity exceeds 2 GW.
May 2007. Rock Run ATV Park opens to the public! All environmental, avian, and geotechnical work is completed by Freedom Wind Energy on the 6,000 acre windpark project. As soon as FWE is advised of the new state windpark policy, construction will begin on the utility sized wind turbines. Rock Run will be the premiere example of turning a previous brownfield (coal) into a very special greenfield in combination with existing oil and gas wells.
September 15, 2006. Freedom Wind Energy announces that its Director of Development, Kenneth J. Dandar, now serves on the Pennsylvania Wind and Wildlife Collaborative "to develop a set of Pennsylvania-specific principles, policies, best management practices, guidelines, and tools that can be used to assess risk to habitat and wildlife from wind power development, and to mitigate for the impact of that development."
August 2006. Freedom Wind Energy announces that it is now offering Free Wind Assessments to qualified properties throughout North America. Owners simply go to its website and submit a form via the internet.
June 12, 2006. Freedom Wind Energy, LLC, as joint venture partner in the 6,000 acre Cambria County windpark known as "Rock Run Windpark, LLC," announces it has past the third step in analysis by PJM. Freedom Wind Energy, LLC, in partnership with Babcock & Brown, LLC, is under contract with the Cambria County Recreation and Conservation Authority to develop a windpark on the county owned 6,000 acre former coal strip mine. This site, containing active oil and gas wells, will soon host the new Cambria County ATV park.
May 15, 2005. Freedom Wind Energy, LLC announces that Kennan G. Dandar, Esq. has now assumed the position of CEO. FWE has opened the field office of "Rock Run WindPark, LLC in downtown Ebensburg, Pennsylvania. Thomas McDonough has been appointed General Counsel of FWE. The executive offices shall remain in Tampa, Florida. Kennth Dandar has been appointed VP of Project Development.
February 20, 2005. Freedom Wind Energy, LLC announces that it has entered into a joint venture partnership with G3 Energy, LLC, of Dallas, Texas, to develop a windpark on the county owned 6,000 acre former coal strip mine. This site, containing active oil and gas wells, will soon host the new Cambria County ATV park. FWE's General Counsel, Kennan G. Dandar, looks forward in working with George Hardie, G3Energy's founder and President. "George Hardie has been one of the great pioneers in wind energy for the past 20 years, and his experience will ensure the expeditious success of Rock Run."
November 18, 2004. After fierce competition among major wind developers and utilities, Pennsylvania based windpark developer, Freedom Wind Energy, LLC announces that it has been awarded the exclusive right to develop the Cambria County owned former coal strip mine known as Rock Run. The 6,000 acres located in Patton, Pennsylvania is a reclaimed strip coal mine. It continues to have active oil and gas wells, and will soon be one of the largest and advanced ATV parks east of the Mississippi River, owned and operated by Cambria County Recreation and Conservation Authority! The site will house as many as 50 modern wind turbines, generating enough electricity to power 35,000 homes.
(EDITED)
December 8, 2004
By MIKE FAHER
PATTON
An Allegheny County company plans to build 60 to 200 turbines at Rock Run Recreational Area, a project that would dwarf wind facilities in Somerset County and may become Pennsylvania's largest.
Executives plan a press conference Monday to announce the deal. But those close to the project disclosed Tuesday that spinning windmills will share space with an all-terrain vehicle track at the former strip mine in Chest Township.
"It's basically a brown property that's going to turn green," said Freedom Wind Energy LLC's managing director. "We're turning an environmental hazard into an environmental plus."
In March, Cambria County Conservation and Recreation Authority bought about 6,000 acres formerly owned by a coal company. Officials have said their main goal is to create an ATV park, which could open next year.
But some also say there's plenty of space in the remote park for windmills. Freedom Wind and county officials confirmed they had struck a deal, the terms of which were not released.
"It's using renewable energy," Dee Columbus, Conservation and Recreation Authority director, said in a telephone interview. "It's using the wind, and it's providing an energy source that's not using fossil fuels and finite resources."
Somerset County already has three wind farms. But those sites total only 34 turbines.
Freedom Energy's project could span multiple ridges, though Herbert guarantees that the towers would not affect ATV riders.
"We obviously have to situate this with the ATV park, we have to really work around that."
Before building turbines, developers in any wind project must obtain all necessary permits, find a power buyer and also extensively survey wind speeds at a proposed site.
FWE still must conduct those studies, so he said it's not clear how many windmills Freedom Wind Energy will erect. And there are other variables, including the availability of public and private financing.
If all goes well, the site could sustain hundreds of turbines producing up to 400 megawatts of electricity.
Based on rough estimates from previous wind projects in the area, that's enough juice to power 200,000 homes.
"This is going to make a statement to everybody in the energy world," said FWE's managing director.
He added that the windmills could begin turning within two years, though the project may take longer to come to fruition.
Being a Pennsylvania-based company may have helped Freedom Wind's chances in landing the Rock Run project. FWE praised state officials for their promotion of alternative energy, and he said conservation and recreation authority leaders have worked well with Freedom Wind.
The young company has not yet put a turbine in the ground. Freedom Wind is developing other projects, including one in upstate New York and possibly another wind farm near Rock Run.
"It's so rural up there that it's an ideal location," said Ron Budash, Cambria County Industrial Development Corp. director.
Budash praised the Rock Run project. While windmills do not directly create permanent jobs and produce relatively little tax revenue, he said they raise the area's profile and may attract energy-related businesses.
Budash pointed to cogeneration plants in Ebensburg, a new power plant in Seward and Somerset County's wind farms as major assets.
"It establishes an identity," he said. "Now we become a multifaceted power-generation area."
In fact, Rock Run already may have helped promote the area's economic fortunes.
Spanish turbine manufacturer Gamesa Corp., which has considered building a plant in the Johnstown area, has had discussions with Freedom Wind Energy.
- A massive wind farm hailed as a model for national development - and with a price tag possibly approaching $400 million - is headed for a recreational park in Cambria County.
THE TRIBUNE-DEMOCRAT