2007 Harvesting Energy Summit:
WIND FOR RURAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
As a Prowers County commissioner in southeast Colorado when the wind turbines came, John Stulp speaks from first-hand experience about the impact in his rural area.
“I don’t know of anything I’ve seen in my lifetime—except maybe the introduction of electricity—that’s been more positive to my community,’’ Stulp told participants at the IHEN Summit.
His county’s assessed valuation went from $92 million in 2003 to $124 million in 2004. The schools were able to more quickly pay off construction bonds and the local district received a tax reduction of $12 million. Farms where turbines were located (including his son’s wheat farm) receive payments of $3,000 to $5,000 per turbine per year.
Stulp, newly named Colorado Agriculture Commissioner, notes that in addition to economic benefits, wind power is very compatible with agriculture because it uses little land and virtually no water.
After construction, people asked, “”When is the next wind farm coming?’’ Stulp said.
“There’s no reason the western U.S can’t be the Saudi Arabia of renewable energy development,’’ he added.
One challenge is a constrained equipment market with a shortage of turbines, transformers, cranes and trucks, experts said. Large companies are making big turbine purchases about three years in advance. More equipment construction would be stimulated by a longer extension of the production tax credit to provide more certainty to manufacturers, speakers said.
Experts answered a variety of common questions about wind related to reliability, economics, transmission, integration and wildlife impacts, assuring IHEN participants that wind is ready to play a major role in the region’s energy future.
“We think it’s the crop of the 21st century and as big a play as ethanol,’’ said Larry Flowers of Wind Powering America, who played a key role in organizing the presentations.
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