Chamber CEO Peggy Emerson Speaks Out about Amazon Wind Farm

Ask Peggy Emerson, Executive Director of the Paulding Chamber of Commerce, what she thinks of the new Amazon wind farm going up in her county, and she’ll tell you:

“Paulding Chamber of Commerce is thrilled to celebrate all of the renewable energy projects that we have going on. These are great ways for us to develop the economic benefits locally, and not only in our county, but the counties around us as well.”

That’s how she put it in a video recently released by Amazon about the project that is now going up in Paulding County and expected to begin operations in May 2017.

Her enthusiasm about wind energy comes for a good reason: The Amazon Wind Farm is estimated to reflect an investment of $175 to $200 million a year in this small northwest Ohio community.

Said Paulding County Commissioner Roy Klopfenstein: “On a county level, we’ve been able to give our employees raises, the school systems have been able to add instructors, and after construction, I know of no township road that isn’t in better condition after they’ve left.”

Neighboring Van Wert County has experienced similar successes with Iberdrola’s Blue Creek Wind Farm, which began commercial operation in 2012 and delivers $2 million a year in new revenue for schools and a steady stream of income for farmers.

Van Wert Area Chamber CEO Susan Munroe has called wind a “cash crop” that reliably pays year after year.

Amazon is also planning wind farms in North Carolina and Indiana. Watch the video about the Paulding County project here: https://youtu.be/hoi4YTNBz1k.