Proposed green energy complex finds backers
BY SAM SMITH
SVN REPORTER
ssmith@svnmail.com
A proposal to build an environmentally friendly 100-room hotel and conference center and a green energy museum in the Sauk Valley has found support from a local zoning board and officials at Sauk Valley Community College.
Bruce and Joyce Papiech, who own a 41-tower wind farm north of Sublette in Lee and Ogle counties, took their plan before the Lee County Zoning Board Thursday. The plan also includes the addition of 74 new windmills to their existing farm.
The board unanimously voted to recommend the plan to the Lee County Board, which likely will consider the project on Jan. 15.
If approved, the hotel and conference center would be the largest development in the Sublette area since Woodhaven Lakes 30 years ago, said Don Dinges, the economic development coordinator for Sublette.
The conference center is planned to comply with the strictest standards of the U.S. Green Building Council, and has the backing of some heavy hitters in the wind industry.
ComEd, Exelon, U.S. Bank, several state and federal agencies and a dozen wind-turbine manufacturers have thrown their weight and money behind the project, Papiech told the Zoning Board, in part because of government mandates that 25 percent of electricity come from renewable resources by 2025, Papiech said.
The initial building plan covers 8.5 acres on a 76-acre site at the corner of U.S. Route 52 and Tower Road, which the couple already owns. They plan to break ground this spring and complete construction within the year.
Meanwhile, Sauk Valley officials have shown support for the project by unveiling their own plans for a wind-energy certification program.
The community college hopes to capitalize on state-of-the-art education materials donated by wind-turbine manufacturers by offering hands-on classes and student internships on-site.
Dean Alan Pfeifer said the college expects it will be "the premier wind-technology program in the county."
The program will offer two tiers of certification
and includes courses from the cross-section of technologies that go into the construction and maintenance of 450-foot-tall wind turbines, including digital electronics, hydraulic and electric motors, wind-turbine mechanics, and meteorological and aeronautical engineering.
The field is so new that Pfeifer said he and College President George Mihel toured the country visiting the handful of colleges and universities that offer similar programs.
Finding professors to teach the classes will be difficult, Pfeifer said, hinting that certified instructors from out of state might stay in the new hotel while teaching portions of the classes.
Mihel said he hopes to have classes starting for the fall semester of this year.
Before that can happen, the program must be approved by both the Sauk Valley Community College Board of Trustees and the Illinois Community College Board.
Such as partnership between the school and the conference center/museum would further the Papieches' mission of community outreach and education about green technology.
"We want this to be a place for truthful answers about what's going on in the industry," Papiech said.
The couple has resisted solicitations from national hotel chains, citing a desire to retain control, Bruce Papiech said.
"We already have requests for conferences - they're just waiting for the all-clear that we're done," Papiech said.
