Winona invests in wind

September 21st, 2009 by Mike Knutson

News comes to us from Minnesota announcing a partnership enabling Winona County to become “the first county in Minnesota to develop renewable energy to benefit taxpayers.” (see “County finalizes wind turbine project,” Winona Daily News)

This sounds very similar to what the City of Howard accomplished back in 2001 when it became the first municipality in the state to own and operate wind turbines. (The two other communities in Miner County–Carthage and Canova–followed suit in 2002.)

Although similar in many ways, the two projects appear to differ in their desired outcome. Howard’s motivation revolved around assisting a start-up wind energy company and developing a stronger community brand. Winona’s goals, on the other hand, appear to be to provide a model for wind energy development and develop a revenue source for economic development efforts. (According to the article, the Winona County Economic Development Authority could receive up to $1.12 million from the sale of electricity over the next 20 years.)

The ability of the wind project to deliver over a million dollars in revenue to the Winona Count EDA will only be proven by time. But I think the community leaders should be congratulated for looking at the wind development as a source of revenue for economic development.

Why investments like this are important

It has been the experience of the Rural Learning Center that most rural communities know they need to invest in economic development, but few have or want to use tax dollars to invest in those efforts. If not tax dollars, then what?

Admittedly Winona’s investment doesn’t come without risks, and questioning public investment in private sector business is a legitimate concern. But there’s little doubt that the Winona model points the way to one option for funding community development activities.

It also raises the question: What is your community doing to fund economic and community development for your community?

Note: Thanks go to Dakota Rural Action for tweeting about this project. (and who says Tweeting is a waste of time?) And thanks to Linda Grover, Director of the Winona County Economic Development Authority, for answer a few questions.

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