Wind energy to serve growing needs in Missouri

[jpak]

http://www.joplinindependent.com/display_article.php/t-wyche1162064325

Skepticism about wind energy in Missouri was blown away October 20, 2006, when legislators toured construction of the state’s first wind farm and developers announced that a third utility-scale wind farm will be built and operating near by town of Conception in Nodaway County in northwest Missouri by the end of 2007. About 20 Nodaway County landowners are involved in the Conception project, which will span more than 7,000 acres. They will receive annual lease payments for hosting turbines, and the county will benefit from an expanded tax base and job creation.

“For the longest time, this wind farm existed in my head, on the piles on my desk, as a file on my computer and in the faces of the landowners, engineers and consultants,” said developer Tom Carnahan, president of Wind Capital Group.

Today, it’s real due to the collaboration of Wind Capital Group, John Deere Wind Energy and Missouri’s rural electric cooperatives, Carnahan said. “If anyone doubts wind power is real and going to happen, put that thought to rest today. John Deere and Missouri’s electric cooperatives are transforming rural America again, and for the better.”

“We have the potential to make a difference,” said David Drescher, vice president of John Deere Wind Energy, a unit of Deere & Co. providing debt and equity investment and co-development services for the three wind farms in northwest Missouri. “Wind projects develop the economic value in rural Missouri and take advantage of a renewable resource that’s free,” he said. “It makes good environmental and economic sense for the landowners and for energy independence.”

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[kestrel91316]

1. I especially like how wind power in many cases allows for

dual use of the land - farming crops AND harvesting wind energy at the same time. And those lease payments to farmers will help keep family farms afloat and stabilize their revenue streams.

[jpak]

2. Unlike nuclear power, renewable energy will revive and sustain rural America

Biodiesel, ethanol, wood/straw fuel pellets, biogas, wind and PV will add stable and sustainable revenue to farm/landowner incomes.

Rural communities will receive much needed tax revenue which will benefit local tax payers.

and - it's all good for the environment.

Only the pro-nuclear Dick Cheney clown squad would suggest this is a bad thing...

:evilgrin:

[kestrel91316]

3. I especially like the idea of biogas from livestock manure...............

Heaven knows we have NO shortage of it!!!!!!!