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Posts Tagged ‘green energy’
Iowa’s vision of Green
March 19th, 2009
With all of the media coverage surrounding green jobs lately, I thought you might be interested in the following comments found in the Omaha World-Herald:
In comparing the number of wind energy jobs in Nebraska to the vastly higher number in Iowa, the article states:
Iowa got ahead because its policymakers worked for more than two decades to nurture the fledgling industry with incentives, regulatory changes and other support. That spadework left the state well-positioned when wind took off nationally.
The article goes on:
Iowa’s lead position in wind energy didn’t happen by accident. Over the years, Iowa’s elected officials approved rebates, loans, grants, tax reductions and regulatory changes to encourage the budding industry.
The state’s university system lent its expertise, and an Iowa community college offered the nation’s first associate degree program for turbine technicians.
Most importantly, wind advocates say, Iowa in 1991 became the first state to mandate that its private utilities derive a certain percentage of their electricity from renewable sources.
In today environment of belt-tightening state governments, a case can be made against the support of any industry with public dollars. But ask Newton, IA (pop. 16,000) if Iowa’s support of the wind energy industry was worth it. When the Maytag plant there closed in 2008, laying off 1,800 workers, a wind turbine blade manufacturer stepped into its place with 500 jobs. I bet a lot of people there are thankful for Iowa’s vision about green job development.
Kudos to Iowa. We can all learn a lesson from the way they pursued and achieved their vision.
Tags: green energy, green jobs, Iowa, newton ia
Posted in Economic Development, In the News, Rural | Comments (0)
Spinning Green: Energy and Dollars
October 17th, 2008
Wednesday some colleagues and I attended the opening ceremony for a new wind farm on a ridge just south of Wessington Springs, SD. The Wessington Springs Wind Farm includes 34 towers and will produce 51 megawatts of electricity. Officials said they have about one month of work left to get those turbines spinning.
According to keynote speaker SD Governor Mike Rounds, here’s what that will mean:
- The project will produce enough energy to power 17,548 average homes.
- Producing this energy with wind as opposed to other sources will save 230,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year, and conserve 11.2 million gallons of water every day.
- South Dakota’s two largest universities, SDSU in Brookings and USD in Vermillion, will become “green.” The Governor signed an agreement with Heartland Consumers Power District (one of the partners in the Wessington Springs project) to provide all of the two universities’ power (above their WAPA allocation, anyway) from green sources in South Dakota–which will initially be supplied by the Wessington Springs farm.
It was really interesting to hear about the process of completing the wind farm from Chris Shugart, project manager with Babcock & Brown (B&B is the other primary partner in this project). He said three ingredients are required to look at building a wind farm:
- You need plenty of wind (most rural South Dakota communities have that covered),
- You need high voltage power transmission lines (a major line runs right through the Wessington Springs site),
- And you need a group of partners to fund the project (construction for this project was about $100 million).
Chris, along with one of the project landowners and other local officials, also talked about the local economic impact the project will bring. Landowners receive annual lease payments, construction crews are in the area spending money, property and other tax revenues spill into local entities, and–at least in this case–new families are moving into the community as long-term workers at the wind farm.
I don’t know any details about the land leases in this project, but we’ve heard numbers like $6000 or more per tower per year in other parts of South Dakota. If you know about the local economic impacts of wind, please share in the comments!
Tags: green energy, green power, renewable energy, South Dakota, wind, wind energy, wind power
Posted in Economic Development, Rural | Comments (1)