Wind

The winds that blow through the rural communities of the intermountain west offer great hope to struggling farming communities. Wind resources in our region offer the potential for generating enormous amounts of clean energy at a price that is competitive with traditional energy sources and in some areas cheaper than developing new fossil fuels. The best wind resources are often found in the dry plains where other economic development is scarce. A major wind farm near the southeastern Colorado town of Lamar, for example, helped turn the economic tide in that drought-stressed area, resulting in a 30 percent increase in county tax revenue and royalties of $2000 to $4000 to landowners for each turbine.

One of the biggest obstacles to development of more wind energy projects in the rural intermountain area is insufficient transmission to carry the energy from where the winds blow to where the people are demanding more electricity. Transmission issues cry out for regional solutions and Intermountain Harvesting Energy Network is working with policy makers in several arenas to solve these problems.

Development of community scale wind projects that offer the greatest benefit to local landowners is one of our priorities. We are working with groups of rural entrepreneurs to help them overcome barriers to bring to life these new engines of the rural economy.

Resources
USDOE Wind Powering America
Windustry
American Wind Energy Association
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
National Wind Coordinating Committee
Western Governors Association Wind Initiative