FARM THE WIND

Jerry Harke, director of issues management for the American Farm Bureau Federation, did a pretty good job of presenting the argument for why farmers, ranchers and rural land owners should install wind turbines.

It is not a hard case to make: Turbines earn money!

On land where terrain or soil has prevented productivity, turbines turn it into income-producing property.

On land already being worked, turbines are usually compatible with crops or grazing, adding to the land’s productivity.

Harke presented wind's advantages pretty well: Wind is pollution free, abundant, renewable and the most cost competitive of the New Energies.

In listing the disadvantages of wind, Harke got a little lost.

He said it is a disadvantage that a lot of turbines will be necessary to generate energy on a meaningful national scale. It will take a lot of ANYTHING to generate energy on a meaningful national scale – but farmers and ranchers usually don't get included in coal and nuclear power plant deals. That it will take a lot of turbines means wind offers a lot of opportunity to rural landowners.

Harke then said wind is seen as undependable because it is not “predictable.” Intermittency is not the same as unpredictability. Wind is HIGHLY predictable. And, despite intermittency, wind is dependable if there are enough installations in a large region so that when the wind is not blowing in one location, more wind power at another location can be brought onto the grid.

He got one thing right: There are complaints about turbine noise and about turbines’ “aesthetic” appearance on the landscape. Those complaints are in the eye and ear of the beholder. Rarely do beholders who earn money from the wind turbines complain. This is another good reason why turbines are best placed on privately owned rural lands.

Harke’s last “disadvantage” was that wind is at a distance from population centers and will therefore require expensive substations and transmission lines to deliver it. First, and most obviously, this is a good thing for rural landowners (where the wind is). It means the city money has to come to them.

Secondly, the rural landowners should earn a right-of-way fee when new transmission is built across their property. That would add to their land's earning power and again turn a disadvantage into an advantage.

Bottom line: As the need for energy grows, the logic of wind energy – in service to the most of the people, most of the time – is more and more undeniable.

click to enlarge

An Energy Solution That’s Blowin’ in the Wind
Jerry Harke, August 25, 2008 (American Farm Bureau Federation)

WHO
Farmers, ranchers and rural landowners; Jerry Harke, director of issues management, American Farm Bureau Federation; U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (DOE/EERE)

WHAT
Wind turbines offer a source of income to farmers, ranchers and rural landowners.

New transmission will be needed -- and those who give their land for it should get something in return. (click to enlarge)

WHEN
In the past: Some undeveloped land has produced income for owners through oil and gas leases.

WHERE
- DOE/EERE charts show areas of the U.S. with the best wind energy generation potential.
- DOE studies from Minnesota and northern Iowa: Land-lease payments range from $2,000 to $4,000+ per turbine, per year.

WHY
- Turbines can be placed on previously unproductive lands with unworkable terrain or poor soil and can also be on productive land because they take up little actual space.
- Remuneration depends on the turbine’s size, the electricity it produces and the selling price of the electricity. Payments are ~ 2% to 4% of the turbine’s annual gross revenue.
- Advantages to installing turbines: (1) Wind does not pollute local air quality like oil and gas. No acid rain, no greenhouse gases. (2) Wind is renewable and abundant, the product of solar heating of air driven by the earth’s rotation over surface irregularities. (3) Wind-generated electricity is the most cost competitive of the New Energies (4 cents to 6 cents per kilowatt-hour).
- Disadvangtages(?): (1) A lot of turbines are needed and (2) wind is undependable and (3) wind has noise and aesthetic issues and (4) supply is remote from demand.

A bucolic, lucrative-looking scene. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Harke: “Today, with prices for oil and gasoline at all-time highs, interest in the production of electricity at lower costs using energy other than fossil fuels is strong.”
- Harke: “…one of the answers to our energy challenges may just be blowin’ in the wind.”