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Clean Energy a Wind-Fall for Rural Areas
A new report released this month examines how wind power is emerging as a low-cost energy source and a new "agricultural commodity" to harvest revenues and create vital jobs in the rural Northwest .
Harvesting Clean Energy for Rural Development: Wind is the first of a series of reports illustrating how renewable energy can bring economic revitalization to rural areas in the Northwest. The report describes wind as a new "crop" that integrates well with existing operations while providing a valuable, reliable source of additional income. "Wind growth is being driven by demand for environmentally-friendly power, but wind is rapidly becoming cost-competitive with the cheapest source of new fossil fuel-fired power, natural gas turbines," says report author Patrick Mazza of Climate Solutions , based in Olympia, Washington .
The report highlights three key beneficiaries of wind development:
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Landowners
who lease property to wind developers earn $1,500-$2,000 per wind turbine annually, far more than income from traditional crops;
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Rural economies
are boosted by wind project construction and operation jobs (up to 66% more than a comparable natural gas-fired plant, according to a New York study cited); and
- Rural governments benefit from an expanded tax base. For example, the 25-megawatt Vansycle Ridge facility near Pendleton, Oregon, pays $244,000 in property taxes per year.
The Blackfeet Tribe in Montana is building the first large-scale wind farm on a reservation in the U.S. and Washington is planning its first utility-scale wind plant in 2001 in a rural area southeast of the Tri-Cities. Nearly 375-megawatts of wind expansion is slated for the Northwest in the next year and will bring crucial new revenues to parts of the region not benefiting from the "high tech" boom. Much of the best wind resources are located in rural areas.
The report includes pointers on how farmers, ranchers, tribes and other rural landowners can take maximum advantage of wind's new economic opportunities, and outlines a series of policy steps for state governments to advance wind power as a rural development strategy.
The new report and information on a related January 29 - 30 conference in Spokane is available at www.climatesolutions.org .
Heather Rhoads-Weaver