07/18/08 Wind Power Supports Rural America

Wind Power Supports Rural America. I'm Greg Martin as Line On Agriculture presents the Harvest Clean Energy Report. They are hard to miss; those tall white wind turbines that dot the landscape in strategic locations. Not only are they producing clean renewable energy, they are providing financial support for rural America. Randy Knowles is one of the Commissioners for the Klickitat Public Utilities District. KNOWLES: We view it from a number of perspectives as a real positive both from the energy perspective and in many ways it's great for the farming community in our area because most of these wind leases are on farm ground. It allows them to create a revenue stream and they can continue to farm rather than break them up and sell them so it's been good in that perspective. It's good for the tax base in the county. As wind turbines generate power it is fed back into the power grid and Knowles talks about those challenges. KNOWLES: Any wind project that you are integrating into the grid of course you are integrating through the Bonneville system in our area and they have worked very well with us. As a matter of fact I'm at a conference today talking about some of the issues surrounding integrating wind projects and the problems with capacity and how it affects the system. Last week we talked about the potential for generating 20% of the U.S. power through wind projects and while it is a good goal there are some issues getting there. KNOWLES: Again that's a wind integration issue. We have 800 megawatts currently. There's probably another 1200 -1300 potentially or significantly more of capacity in the area so there's a bunch left to do. And besides providing good clean power that offsets other methods of generation, the wind projects do provide a revenue stream for both farmers and communities. KNOWLES: In our particular site we have 5 landowners, all local folks. It's great because of all the activity specifically for the areas in Goldendale and Roosevelt and the local communities but essentially in our county these projects have nearly doubled the accessed property in the county and that has a huge impact. For additional information on clean energy, visit harvestcleanenergy.org. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network. www.harvestcleanenergy.org