Heritage Wind expects to start clearing land in February for $370 million project in Barre

Apex will pay $1.1 million annually to Barre, Albion Central School, Orleans County; EDA to be paid $4.5 million in 3 payments

BARRE – Heritage Wind expects to start site work in February, clearing trees as part of a large-scale wind energy project that has been in development for about a decade.

Apex Clean Energy, owner of Heritage Wind, will start the tree clearing in February and then have full civil mobilization of its construction crew in July 2025, said Carmen O’Keefe, director of development for Apex.

The project is scheduled to be operational the end of 2026, with a capacity of 126 megawatts. Apex has scaled back the project from an initial plan of 33 turbines generating 184.8 megawatts. The project will now be 27 turbines at 126 megawatts. Apex removed some of the turbines that were planned to be near the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge.

The construction costs have escalated in recent years, pushing the total cost from $304 million to $373 million.

“It costs more though there are fewer turbines because the cost of materials, turbines and labor has increased fairly significantly since the original resolution was passed in 2021,” O’Keefe said.

Heritage Wind has been permitted to construct Vestas V150 4.5 MW (640 foot high) and Vestas V162 6.0 MW (656 foot high) turbines. O’Keefe said Apex will likely use the 640-foot-high turbines in Barre.

The company will pay $9,000 per megawatt to local municipalities or $1,134,000 in the first year, with a 2 percent increase after that over 25 years.

Barre gets 75 percent of the money as part of a Host Community Agreement. The $6,750 per megawatt totals $850,000.

The remaining 25 percent or $2,250 per megawatt is evenly split by the school district and county. That is $140,175 each.

In addition, Heritage Wind will be paying an administrative fee to the Orleans Economic Development Agency for administering the PILOT with the school district and county.

The EDA will receive $775,000 this month, and then will receive two $1.8 million payments – one by Dec. 1, 2025 or the date of the closing of the PILOT/lease-leaseback transaction and then another $1.8 million a year after the closing.

The combined $4.575 million will be a big boost to the EDA and its economic development efforts, said EDA executive director Michael Dobell. He expects some of the funds will be used to advance development of the Medina Business Park.