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Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Rural Nebraskans want more wind power while some Minnesotans complain about turbine farms

The last estimates from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory placed Nebraska as the No. 3 state for wind energy potential, but it currently ranks only 22nd in developed wind- power capacity with 153 megawatts. While a 340-turbine wind farm is clearly visible from the Nebraska panhandle, all the towers are actually in Colorado, a discrepancy that is starting to raise eyebrows among Nebraska lawmakers and rural residents, Paul Hammel of the Omaha World-Herald reports.

"Everyone is asking the question, 'Why can't we develop it here?'" state Sen. Ken Haar of Malcolm told Hammel. "If there's economic opportunity," Ogala state Sen. Ken Schilz added, "the State of Nebraska needs to step up and be able to allow the same kinds of opportunities here." Some state lawmakers hope to open Nebraska to private wind farms, which can export the power to other states. Public power utilities are not eligible for major federal incentives to build wind farms in Nebraska because of the state's policy favoring public power. (Read more)

Not all rural residents are excited about increased wind generation. In Minnesota, the nation's fourth largest wind power producer at 1,805 megawatts, an increasingly vocal backlash against noisy, shadow-casting turbines is launching a serious blowback to the industry, Tom Meersmen of the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. Most people who live more than a half mile from the turbines aren't bothered by them, and residents who own the land the turbines sit on receive substantial compensation, but those in between are starting to complain.

"The rural area isn't what it used to be anymore," Kevin Hammel, a dairy farmer about nine miles east of Rochester, where wind developers are active, told Meersmen. "I'm not against wind. They're going to put them up whether I like it or not," Katie Troe, leader of Safe Wind for Freeborn County, told Meersmen. "What we're asking is that every turbine be looked at and placed correctly." (Read more)

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