Honda intends to obtain 10% of the electricity its Russells Point transmission factory requires from a pair of wind turbines.
They are to generate 10,000 MWh per year, which is enough to power an estimated eight hundred houses.These wind turbines stand two-hundred and sixty feet tall, the blades will be one hundred and sixty feet long, and will be visible when driving through Logan County.
Honda came to an agreement under which Juhl Wind of Pipestone, Minnesota would install and operate the wind turbines for a cost of $8 million, and Honda agreed to buy the electricity that it generates.
The company got permission from Washington Township officials last June to carry out this project.
The Russells Point manufacturing plant employs 1,150 people and constructs transmissions for most of Honda’s assembly plants in North America.
Honda would be one of five companies that use wind power on this scale, according to Bill Spratley, executive director of Green Energy Ohio, a renewable-energy advocacy group, and the only car manufacturer to power a US based factory with wind turbines.
The site is close to ideal, he said. “They are over there by the windiest part of the state, as you get over near Bellefontaine.”
