een wereldwijd elektriciteitsnet een oplossing voor veel problemen  GENI es una institución de investigación y educación-enfocada en la interconexión de rejillas de electricidad entre naciones.  ??????. ????????????????????????????????????  nous proposons la construction d’un réseau électrique reliant pays et continents basé sur les ressources renouvelables  Unser Planet ist mit einem enormen Potential an erneuerbaren Energiequellen - Da es heutzutage m` glich ist, Strom wirtschaftlich , können diese regenerativen Energiequellen einige der konventionellen betriebenen Kraftwerke ersetzen.  한국어/Korean  utilizando transmissores de alta potência em áreas remotas, e mudar a força via linha de transmissões de alta-voltagem, podemos alcançar 7000 quilómetros, conectando nações e continentes    
What's Geni? Endorsements Global Issues Library Policy Projects Support GENI
Add news to your site >>







About Us
More Farmers Seeing Wind As Cash Crop:

Wind Farms Are Springing Up From Rural Fields Across the Midwest As a Once-Boutique Alternative Power Industry Begins to Boom

Dec 11, 2007 - Chicago Tribune

At a time when most people choose to avoid the harsh winter winds that roar past corn stubble and whip up billowing dust clouds over table-flat fields, farmers in the Thumb of Michigan now talk about catching the wind and all the money that comes with it.

Michigan's first commercial wind farm -- a collection of 32 towering turbines that conjure visions of H.G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds" -- is scheduled to begin operating in a few weeks, spurring for some a near-gold rush mentality in this sparsely populated area.

Thousands of dollars in a guaranteed annual harvest come with each windmill placed on a farmer's land, and that lure has gone a long way toward interrupting the horizontal sameness of vast corn and bean fields.

"I can't wait till they get going," said Bob Webber, who turned over easement rights to a portion of his property in Huron County for a proposed second wind farm, with 42 turbines.

"I'm looking forward to seeing a lot more of them. ... This would be a big deal for me," Webber said.

For generations the tallest structures in the agricultural Midwest have been grain elevators, but the rapid growth of the wind-power industry is altering the landscape in states such as Iowa, which has about 960 turbines, and Minnesota, which has about 860 turbines, according to the American Wind Energy Association, a trade group.

Iowa and Minnesota rank third and fifth, respectively, in annual electrical power generated by wind (Illinois ranks 11th), and a utility executive in Detroit said he envisions the tip of Michigan's Thumb planted with more than 1,000 wind turbines. The 32 Michigan turbines reach 400 feet from the base to the tip of the rotor blade and are projected to provide electricity to more than 15,000 homes served by Wolverine Power Cooperative, in western and northern Michigan.

Because of consistent wind speeds that buffet the Thumb, a region that juts into Lake Huron and Saginaw Bay, "Huron County is the sweet spot," said Trevor Lauer, vice president of retail marketing for DTE Energy Co. The Detroit-based electric utility has bought easement rights to 30,000 acres in the county, taking advantage of good winds and what appears to be a path of least citizen resistance.

"Agricultural land and wind play together very well," said Lauer, adding that wind power has "reached a tipping point. It's no longer a question of if but when, and to what extent."

Iowa cashing in

Last month TPI Composites announced it will open a factory in Newton, Iowa, to build wind turbine blades. That will be the fifth turbine parts manufacturer that has set up operations in Iowa in the past two years, driven by a soaring national demand for turbines. During the first nine months of this year, Texas, the nation's leader in wind energy, installed nearly 600 turbines. An additional 136 were scheduled to be installed by the end of the year.

"The world of wind has been substantially reshaped in the past three or four years," said Randall Swisher, executive director of the American Wind Energy Association. "There's a rush of capital into it."

There is, of course, a wide chasm separating the dream of large-scale alternative power and the actual implementation of it. Energy transmission problems and political obstacles -- namely resistance from people who find the turbines ugly or a Cuisinart-like threat to birds -- loom large. Wind power accounts for a mere 1 percent of energy generation nationwide. And turbine proposals in resort and seaside areas such as Cape Cod have provoked loud protests. Federal tax credits are a vital lifeline to the industry.

But the investment in wind power is taking root in sparsely populated areas of the Midwest and across the country, due in large part to state mandates forcing utilities to generate a certain percentage of their electricity -- say, 10 to 20 percent -- from alternative sources. At least two other wind power ventures are under consideration in Huron County. Michigan's entry into wind power is notable because this state, by virtue of its long marriage to the automobile industry, is perhaps the ultimate fossil fuel state.

State officials say the wind farm due to open around Jan. 1 will save Michigan residents $4billion on power generation over the next 20 years.

"This makes a statement very clearly that we think renewables [energy] will be part of the future," said Craig Borr, executive vice president at Wolverine.

The more immediate beneficiaries of the gradual move to wind power are people like Bob Krohn, who owns about 1,500 acres near the town of Pigeon. Krohn spends most of his early mornings with longtime friends, downing coffee at a round Formica table at the Dutch Kettle, a keep-your-hat-on restaurant where the most expensive item on the menu is $5.85. The three turbines on Krohn's property will earn him $18,000 to $30,000 a year, he said.

"We're so used to seeing them now," said Krohn, whose turbines are among the 32 in the $90million project developed by John Deere Wind Energy.

On a recent frigid night in Bad Axe, DTE officials invited 250 people to a hotel for a prime-rib and open-bar schmooze designed to sell the virtues of wind power. In Huron County, where the median family income of $42,400 is 15 percent below the national average, the utility is preaching to a sizable choir.

Mary Jahr, a waitress at the Dutch Kettle, said if she and her husband got windmills on their 160 acres in the western part of the county, "I might be able to quit working."

Not all enthusiastic

The support, however, is not unanimous. In the northernmost part of the county, along the shore of Lake Huron, critics have raised objections about the windmills' potential harm to birds and property values. This is a lake resort area, popular in the summertime. It's an eagle nesting site and part of the migratory path of thousands of tundra swans.

"Our township is unique because it is resort and agricultural," said Louis Colletta, the planning commission chairman for Lake Township.

The township last month rejected DTE's request to set up testing towers to measure the speed and consistency of the wind. Colletta said there are many questions to be answered about the wisdom to installing windmills, "and we can't go at it too fast." In that regard, Huron County is a microcosm of the national debate.

Russell Lundberg, director of the Huron County Building and Zoning Department, said there is growing acceptance of wind power in the county. People see it as a way of preserving farmland and the historical heritage of the region and, at the same time, embracing new technology.

"What would I rather have in my back yard? A subdivision of homes or a coal-burning power plant?" Lundberg asked. "We're going to hear both sides on this issue, but there will be more wind farms here, no question about it."

- -- -

Power points: Particulars of wind turbines

HOW BIG?

Wind towers range from 200 to 300 feet, with blades adding 100 to more than 120 feet in length.

SWEEP? The rotor sweep can approach the length of a football field.

HOW HEAVY?

Turbine weight varies but can be more than 50 tons, with rotor blades exceeding 40 tons.

HOW FAST?

Maximum rotor speed varies, from 11 to more than 22 revolutions per minute, depending on the model.

- -- -

IN THE WEB EDITION

Watch a Tribune video report on the first commercial wind farm in Michigan at http://www.chicagotribune.com/video/?slug=chi-071214wind-wn

tmjones@tribune.com

-----

To see more of the Chicago Tribune, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.chicagotribune.com

Copyright (c) 2007, Chicago Tribune

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

NYSE:DTE


OVER VIEW



Updated: 2016/06/30

If you speak another language fluently and you liked this page, make a contribution by translating it! For additional translations check out FreeTranslation.com (Voor vertaling van Engels tot Nederlands) (For oversettelse fra Engelsk til Norsk)
(Для дополнительных переводов проверяют FreeTranslation.com )