Wind Power for Communities

Wind Power for Communities. I'm Greg Martin as Line On Agriculture presents the Harvest Clean Energy Report. Just about anyplace you look in the northwest you will see power generation whether from massive hydroelectric dams or wind power dotting the hillsides. Jessica Raker, Project Manager with Northwest SEED or Sustainable Energy for Economic Development is putting together a workshop for Oregon residents who have an interest in developing wind power. RAKER: This is I believe the third year that we have done these workshops and we're specifically trying to assist residents of rural Oregon to maximize the benefits they get from wind development and that's wind development on all scales. Anything from putting up a small wind turbine on a residential property to working with a commercial developer to make sure you get the best land lease. Raker says that as part of this years' workshop will be something extra. RAKER: We've been partnering with the Energy Trust of Oregon to run these workshops and this workshop is the first time we are also going to include a field trip because the first community wind project in Oregon has just been installed and we are lucky enough to offer a site visit to that. The workshop will take place October 5 & 6 in the Dalles, Oregon. RAKER: Some of the topics that we are going to cover: we start out with sort of the basics of wind energy how do wind turbines work and then we spend quite a bit of time talking about the incentive and financial opportunities available in Oregon for people interested in wind development. So we have someone from USDA Rural Development coming, someone from the Oregon Department of Energy, someone from Energy Trust. In addition to the financial side Raker says they will be covering many other practical topics. RAKER: We then have sessions on on-site use so that would be pretty small wind turbines. We also have a session specifically on working with a commercial developer so we'll talk about what commercial developers are looking for, what their process is and then we have an attorney who has worked with a lot of land owners to help them work on their leases with commercial developers. Registration for the workshops are being help open so to register got to www.nwseed.org. For additional information on clean energy, visit harvestcleanenergy.org. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network. www.harvestcleanenergy.org