Capturing Dollars In The Wind
Anybody with an acre of land is hoping some energy giant will locate a wind farm in our neighborhood so we can have the Northern Prairie version of an oil well. Don't figure the money into your household budget yet, but we saw hope on Wednesday when we drove through the Hyde County Wind Energy Center. Twenty-seven turbines, each over 300 feet high, are spinning in the blue sky about 10 miles south of Highmore along Highway 45.
They make little or no sound. The single old windmill on our farm made a bigger racket than all 27. That's because all Hunhoffs have acrophobia; none of us would climb the ladder to oil the gears.
The wind turbines seem to add quite a peaceful mood to a farmscape.
There's a tiny outdoor visitor's center along Highway 45. Stop and enjoy the turbines if you're in Hyde County. And dream of what you'll do with the money when they reach your land.
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But who will own it and benefit from it? In many areas, locally owned wind turbines are being built. This development model keeps more money in the community rather than a smaller share staying for tower lease payments. Both development models are happening across the country.
Here’s an article with one example:
http://solaraccess.com/rea/news/story?id=44767
John Deere is even helping this happen: http://www.deere.com/en_US/jdc/product_financing/wind_energy/index.html
Here are other sites with more information: www.farmenergy.org
www.windustry.org
Comment by Andy Olsen — May 4, 2006 @ 10:23 am
Why is everyone so excited about putting these giant whirligigs up all over the windy Great Plains to become the nation’s electrical outlet?
Why do environmentalists, who hate the thought of oil exploration and unsightly pipelines in Alaska, have no problem sticking these 200 foot tall monstrosities up anywhere there’s a breeze?
How long before the peaceful fascination some have with these propeller towers wears thin and everyone sort of wishes they would have passed on the easy cash and the windmills would just go away?
Why are so-called conservationists including Walter Cronkite and Ted Kennedy part of a legal fight to stop the development of a wind farm off the coast of their beloved Martha’s Vineyard?
Are ocean views more precious than the uncluttered view of a South Dakota countryside?
Could it be that maybe some thought, besides dollar signs, should be given to the wind generators before they go up and like video lottery machines, will be impossible to remove?
I’m just askin’.
Comment by Doug Lund — May 4, 2006 @ 12:13 pm
Doug …. you raise an interesting point. My take on it would be that the environmental/conservation movement in South Dakota and elsewhere is less concerned with beauty and aesthetics than they are with health and safety of people and the land — so if wind energy is a clean fuel that adds dollars to rural America, then they aren’t going to object on the subjective issue of whether or not the turbines are eyesores.
I personally don’t think they necessarily hurt the landscape. Many years ago I drove through the huge windfarm in southern California, and found it somewhat graceful and soothing. The same seems true of those east of Brookings … and now the smaller wind farm in Hyde County. I don’t think they are any worse than the transmission lines and other manmade additions to the landscape that already exist … and in fact they have a certain symmetry that looks better in my opinion. But I’m sure not all would agree with that ….. and I’m also sure nobody wants them to take up all the landscape, but that’s far from the issue for the foreseeable future.
They are certainly more attractive than the oil well pumps down south — much less industrial looking.
As far as why Cronkite and Kennedy are fighting it, I imagine that’s the old NIMBY syndrome. Hyde County, interestingly, fought tooth and nail to keep the Tyson Hog Farms out of their landscape in 1998 — so they obviously feel quite differently about this type of economic development.
Comment by Bernie Hunhoff — May 4, 2006 @ 6:12 pm
Forget Hemmingsen - that comment makes me want to see a Doug Lund blog…
Comment by SD Kid — May 4, 2006 @ 6:18 pm
Eyesore? The windmills? NAH! There’s a majestic beauty and a quiet dignity to them. I do wish the power could be used locally instead of being shipped off to Chicago, but that was not my choice. Folks still take pictures of them, so the novelty hasn’t worn out yet!
Comment by Jerry Hinkle — May 4, 2006 @ 7:00 pm
Now, now, Doug and SD Kid, we’ve been through all this before. We won’t stop building windmills until the checks don’t clear the bank anymore and until we have payday loan places and pawnshops in every little town ( new Jobs) so wind addicts can finance these things, making it cheaper for the rest of us to heat our homes and schools and run idiotic appliances like the one on which I’m now typing and 46 inch flat screen TVs toward which we can hurl epithets about bad Viking draft chocies.
Then somebody will find a way to measure the “Peak Production” of wind…like oil…and tell us we’re running out of it. Then each farmstead will have a picturesque crumbling barn, house and a dozen wind towers. Steve Hemmingsen, blogmeister.
Comment by Steve Hemmingsen — May 5, 2006 @ 7:13 am
Can we import wind?
Comment by Steve Hemmingsen — May 5, 2006 @ 7:47 am
Steve,
Better yet, can we export it? We should charge the down-wind states for the wind we don’t use. Nebraska can afford it.
Comment by JK — May 5, 2006 @ 8:53 am
Maybe we could dam it up and put the Corps of Engineers in charge of it and have interstate fights about it perennially. As to the aesthetics, at least they don’t stink and I’m looking at hundreds of them across the lake.
Comment by Steve Hemmingsen — May 5, 2006 @ 9:30 am
They’ll work fine until all the wind sediment blocks them up. Also Doug, they’re much prettier than all the TV towers in the state.
Comment by Scott — May 5, 2006 @ 8:20 pm
This energy farm is located where?
” . . . about 10 miles south of Highmore along Highway 45″
I admit I haven’t driven that part of the state since 2002, but I recall Highway 45 running through Miller, due east of Highmore. Or is South Dakota recently affected by shifting tectonic plates?
Comment by Allyn Brosz — May 8, 2006 @ 6:49 am
Allyn
I think Bernie meant Highway 47 but he was pretty close. I don’t think you read highway numbers very closely after you’ve driven in SD for 20 or 30 years.
Comment by JK — May 8, 2006 @ 10:12 am
We could always *Cough* go back to *Cough*
*Haaack!!!*
Building more *Cough Cough* Coal burning plants. *Cough!*
Comment by Jeremy Smith — August 1, 2006 @ 3:36 pm