Wind Energy

Wind Energy

Wind Energy. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

We haven’t talked in a while about wind energy and how it can be a big benefit to not only providing clean, renewable power but help improve the bottom line for farmers and ranchers. Ian Baring-Gould with the National Renewable Energy Labs says it’s something that works.

BARING-GOULD: Oh it certainly works and I think all we have to do is point at the utilities that are buying it. More wind was installed last year than any other power generation technology here in the United States. And that’s even with the really low prices we see in natural gas. And so that’s utilities coming in and saying all things being equal I’m going to buy wind.

It makes sense for farming operations in wind-prone areas to utilized wind.

BARING-GOULD: And that’s what we’re seeing. Wind takes up very little amounts of land. When you install it it takes a little bit more but most of it can be put back in production and farmers can get anywhere from about $5000 to $15,000 for each turbine they put on their property and that’s for 20 years; over 30 years or 50 years and so it’s a nice guaranteed check that you are going to get every year while as we know farming is so dependent on Mother Nature for the rest of it.

There are also the benefits to the local economy.

BARING-GOULD: In the guise of property taxes and things of that nature. So again for each turbine $10-$20-thousand dollars in property taxes that is again a nice stable guaranteed for the life of the project injection into the coffers of the local communities.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.

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