Financial Closing in Small Counties – Laurel Mountain Wind

The Laurel Mountain Wind project in West Virginia is one TerraPro Solutions is particularly proud of. A 97 MW project developed in 2011, it won the award for Innovation in Power in 2013 — one of the pioneer projects to combine wind and battery storage at utility scale.

The project presented two major challenges. First, it was located in a very remote area of West Virginia — literally up a mountainside — requiring careful coordination with the construction team on access road design and rights. Second, and more unusually, the project sat in two very small counties with unpredictable operating schedules that posed a real threat to the closing timeline.

TerraPro Solutions worked closely with the construction team on the access road to ensure not only that all rights were in place, but that the road was engineered to handle the heavy equipment required for turbine installation.

On the closing side, we learned quickly that small county recorders operate on their own schedules — closing for rattlesnake roundup week, scrapbooking festivals, and other local events. When financing closing dates are fixed and debt recording must happen on a specific day, this is not a minor inconvenience. It requires advance coordination with the local recorder's office well before the closing date to confirm availability and lock in recording slots.

The access road was built to spec, all necessary rights were secured, and the county recorder coordination ensured documents were recorded on the required closing date. The project closed on schedule and went on to become an industry landmark — winning the Innovation in Power award two years later.