Wind farm plans halted for now

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - Plans for Performance Park in Tippecanoe County have been put on hold, but wind turbines could still soon be spinning into the area.

In September of 2010, NewsChannel 18 first told you about Performance Park heading to Tippecanoe County.

Scott Zigmond, the Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Performance Services said legal wording is the reason why the project is a "no go" for right now.

"Lawmakers wanted more specific legislation written to allow schools to be able to do a project like this,” Zigmond said. “Illinois has legislation like that so we would like to mirror some type of legislation. This just was not the session to entertain that. But, as we found, Purdue had an interest and the project just came together."

Zigmond added even though Performance Park is a no go, Purdue Energy Park is still set to open a 100 megawatt wind farm and research lab where researchers from the university will team up with members from G.E.

"They are going to have the ability not just to do research on their property, but all 100 megawatts, so that is a little different,” said Zigmond. “Some folks have said, 'why don't they do research on some of the turbines in White County and Benton County?' Those are private property investments."

Zigmond said the next step is getting investments from energy companies to get this project off the ground. Zigmond said that could happen by the end of the summer.