The economics of wind farms has been iffy at best, but IMHO every 5% helps wean us from dependency on foreign oil. And some environmentalists oppose them (if you can imagine) because of hazards to birds. Whatever. I like to look at 'em.
Posted on 12/07/2002 1:27:36 PM PST by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
WICHITA -- Kansas could generate between 5 and 10 percent of its electrical needs by taking advantage of its abundant wind resources instead of buying coal from other states, a wind energy expert told the Kansas Livestock Association Friday.
Dale Osborn, president of Colorado-based Distributed Generation Systems, told cattlemen the state's electrical system has a total generating capacity to handle that much added production from wind energy. He is among the energy experts advising the president on wind power issues.
''Kansas is going to do it or the feds are going to drive it down your throat,'' Osborn told the group at its annual meeting.
He said it's important for Kansans to be involved in the issue.
The state's first commercial wind farm, a 170-turbine operation near Montezuma, opened a year ago. The Gray County Wind Energy farm generates 112 megawatts, enough to power 40,000 households in Kansas and Missouri. UtiliCorp United purchased the power to supply its customers.
There also are two pending proposals to build wind farms in the Flint Hills, the largest remaining tallgrass prairie on the continent. Some groups are opposed to those plans because only about 3 percent of the nation's tallgrass prairie remains, with two-thirds of that in the Flint Hills of Kansas and Oklahoma, said Alan Pollon, director of The Nature Conservancy's Kansas chapter.
''Alternate energy is going to be important to the future of the country ... (but) there may be appropriate places, and less appropriate places, for wind energy,'' Pollon said.
The cattlemen's group has adopted a resolution urging the state to dump its property tax exemption for wind farms. The operations are currently exempt from taxation under a Kansas law designed to bolster wind projects, said Allie Devine, vice president of legal affairs for the KLA.
The property tax exemption now on the books in Kansas is unlimited, she said.
Osborn agreed that Kansas should tax the projects: ''If the local community is not benefiting by these projects, why do it?''
If taxed, local governments could net as much as $300 million in property taxes from wind energy projects over the life of the project, Osborn said.
Because of limitations in the carrying capacity of transmission lines, most of the wind energy operations that are likely to be developed in Kansas will be scattered throughout the state, with each project taking up fewer than 10 sections on any given site, he said.
For every $1 invested in a wind energy project, Osborn told the KLA, the economic value to the community is $2 for such things as construction jobs, operating and maintenance jobs, landowner payments and potential property taxes.
A landowner could make between $40,000 and $60,000 a year per section, with the project disturbing less than 4 percent of the land where it is cited, Osborn said.
One thing nearly all agree on is that the towering windmills will be visible for 20 miles or more from the project area.
Devine told the group she can see the windmills from her family's farm near Montezuma.
''Anything vertical in western Kansas is a thrill to us ... Out there, we think it is pretty,'' she said.
But the prospect of putting towering windmills on the ridges of the Flint Hills have generated a storm of protests.
''This is not grandpa's windmill by any means,'' Pollon said. ''They are a substantial piece of technology.''
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