Honda To Install Wind Turbines At Its Russels Point Plant

Honda intends to obtain 10% of the electricity its Russells Point transmission factory requires from a pair of wind turbines.

These wind turbines stand 260 feet tall; the blades will be 160 feet long and will be visible when driving through Logan County.

They are to generate 10,000 MWh per year, which is enough to power an estimated 800 houses.

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 they generates.

The company got permission from Washington Township officials last June to carry out this project.

“We appreciate the support we have received from the township and our neighbors that will help Honda reduce (carbon) emissions,” Gary Hand, vice president of Honda Transmission, said in a statement.

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.”

Source: The Columbus Dispatch