I don't know how I missed it but PBS has had a series called e2 about sustainable living that I came across last night while flipping channels at 2am. The episode playing was Harvesting The Wind, showing how the state of Minnesota, local communities, farmers and entrepreneurs in southwest Minnesota haven't waited for our energy policy impotent Federal government to move agressively into alternative energies.
The episode showed how entrepeneurs are helping farmers bring wind farming to their land. Part of the solution is to use Federal alternative energy tax credits, which the investors receive along with 99% of the revenues from the eletricity generated. The farmers provide the land, get 1% and are also receive maintenance fees for upkeep of the wind machines. After 10 years, the investors recoup their investment + profits and the ownership flips to the farmers. Multiple farmers have banded together to make larger purchases of wind machines which helps reduce equipment and installation costs.
Business is so good that a propeller manufacturing plant was located in the area. The propellers are the most difficult piece of equipment to ship from Europe, making that an obvious choice for manufacture in the local area. The plant employees 300 people from the community. Rather than the oil business model where big business comes in and owns everything, the state very conciously designed wind energy to be community based. All in all, this seem like a very synergistic approach to bringing wind engergy to market.
I grew up on the plains of Nebraska and spent a good amount time in Ogallala at Lake McConaughey. Lake McConaughey is a man made lake, built to provide consistent water (and lots of it) for farming and irrigation water in mid and eastern Nebraska. There's also a power generation station located at the dam. The wind can howl when it roars across the plains of Nebraska. There were many days during the summer when we'd have to resort to water skiing in small coves that offered some protection from the wind. The windmill is a common site across the plains, providing water to cattle on what would otherwise be some difficult land to raise livestock.
Growing up on the windy plains for Nebraska, I often thought, why don't we have windmills that can generate power from all this wind. That was back during the '70's gas crisis, when a coal fired power plant was being built at Sutherland, NE. Energy was on everyone's mind. I moved from a Chevelle Malibu gas eater to a Datsun (Nissan) economy car so I could afford traveling back home from college.
I guess we just didn't have the technology back then to jump on the wind engergy bandwagon. I wish the US had the foresight to continue investing in wind generation technology, instead of allowing businesses in Europe take the lead. I hope the learnings from Minnesota will help state and local governments bring more wind energy to market while our Federal government gets its act together.
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