The following article appeared in the March issue of Rural Missouri

by Jim McCarty

Tom Carnahan has residents of northwest Missouri thinking a lot differently about the wind these days. That’s because the son of the late Gov. Mel Carnahan was the catalyst for a group effort to build Missouri’s first wind energy farm near King City.

When completed Bluegrass Ridge Wind Energy will allow farmers to harvest the wind as if it were another crop. Owners of a dozen farms have signed leases to allow the wind turbines to be erected on their land.

All members of Missouri’s electric cooperatives, however, will be the ultimate beneficiaries of this new source of clean, renewable and homegrown energy.

“This is an excellent example of a project that will benefit rural counties, schools and farmers while at the same time proving the value of an untapped, renewable energy resource for the state of Missouri,” says Sen. David Klindt of Bethany, chairman of the Senate’s Commerce, Energy and the Environment Committee.

Taking part in the ceremony at the Capitol announcing the state’s first wind energy project were (seated, from left) David Drescher, John Deere Wind Energy, Tom Carnahan, Wind Capital Group, Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, O.B. Clark, Associated Electric Cooperative, (standing, from left) Rep. Walter Bivins, Don McQuitty, N.W. Electric Power Cooperative, Gary Fulks, Associated Electric Cooperative, Gary Hull, United Electric Cooperative, Gene Dorrel, United Electric Cooperative, Jim Jura, Associated Electric Cooperative, Don Shaw, Central Electric Power Cooperative, Doyle Childers, Department of Natural Resources, Sen. David Klindt, John Stickley, N.W. Electric Power Cooperative, Rep. Brad Lager, Rep. Jim Guest and Barry Hart, Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives.

Adds Rep. Jim Guest of King City, “Sometimes we consider the wind a curse or a blessing. But we are definitely going to start looking at it as a blessing when it blows through here now.”

The project will include 24 wind-powered generators rising 300 feet above 7,000 acres of north Missouri landscape. Together they will have the potential to generate 50 megawatts of power, enough to meet the needs of 15,000 to 30,000 homes for a year.

Carnahan’s Wind Capital Group joined representatives of Missouri’s electric cooperatives, John Deere Wind Energy, the Department of Natural Resources and various statewide elected officials in announcing the ambitious project in a ceremony at the state Capitol on Jan. 31.

“Wind projects fit in well with our desire to develop fuel sources here in Missouri that are good for the environment and can help spur economic growth,” says Gov. Matt Blunt, who welcomed leaders of the project to his office. “This is truly a win-win situation.”

Added Lt. Gov Peter Kinder, “Wind, like ethanol and biodiesel, can be homegrown energy. These renewable and cleaner forms of energy can keep our air and water cleaner now and for the future.”

At the announcement ceremony, Carnahan told the audience that the project started out of curiosity.

“I was curious why Missouri did not have a utility-scale wind farm while every other state that borders it did,” says Carnahan. “From that point on, the project evolved from being a curiosity of mine to a highly collaborative effort involving experts around the country to people here locally.”

He says his Web-browsing quickly led to the Department of Natural Resources Web site, where he discovered a recent addition — high-resolution wind maps of Missouri. The maps convinced him certain areas of the state did have potential for wind energy. But he would have to convince a host of skeptics that the project had merit.

“When I first started working on the project no one in the wind industry thought a project in Missouri was possible,” Carnahan says.

Gov. Matt Blunt says the Bluegrass Ridge wind farm will fit in well with his goal of developing Missouri’s energy resources.

Carnahan also met a variety of experts who said he would not find an electric utility willing to buy the output to make the project a reality. He later discovered those experts had not heard of Missouri’s electric cooperatives.

In a meeting with N.W. Electric Power Cooperative, Cameron, which supplies wholesale electricity to electric co-ops in northwest Missouri and would be the project’s connection to the power grid, Carnahan found ready support. Many of Missouri’s electric cooperatives already offer green power to their members, and the opportunity to supply this power from a Missouri source made sense.

N.W. Power’s Manager Don McQuitty took the idea to the board meeting of Associated Electric Cooperative, where he found genuine interest. Associated, which generates most of the electricity used by co-op members in Missouri, agreed to purchase the entire output of the project for 20 years.

“Associated Electric, N.W. Electric and the network of local electric cooperatives are the real heroes of this project,” Carnahan said at the Capitol announcement ceremony. “From the start of work on this project, they understood the potential of wind power and the benefit it would give to their members and the communities they serve. This project became a reality when Gary Fulks (Associated’s director of engineering and operations) called and said the board had enthusiastically approved a 20-year power purchase agreement.”

To equal the output of the Bluegrass Ridge project, a utility would have to burn 100,000 tons of coal. But it’s expensive natural gas, not coal, that the project will likely replace. That is why wind energy is such a good benefit to electric cooperative members.

To meet the needs of its members, Associated uses a mix of coal, natural gas and hydropower resources to generate electricity for nearly 650,000 families in Missouri and parts of Iowa and Oklahoma. By far the most expensive form of generation is natural gas. By replacing gas-fired power with wind power, co-op members will benefit from an inexpensive source of energy since its fuel is essentially free.

“That’s fuel we would have to bring in from other states,” says Associated Manager Jim Jura. “This is a cost-effective resource for us and we are delighted to be part of this project.”

Already the players in this project are talking about a second wind farm. Wind farms once considered marginal for Missouri are now becoming a reality thanks to a variety of factors: tax incentives from the recently passed national energy bill, the new wind maps from DNR, improved technology and, most importantly, a ready source of financing from John Deere Wind Energy.

John Deere, the world’s largest supplier of agricultural equipment, has a business plan that encourages investment in rural areas. Their interest in wind power reflects the corporate belief that improving the economy of rural areas will result in better sales for the tractor division.

While Missouri’s wind doesn’t have the potential of states like Kansas and Illinois, experts think it can support more projects on the scale of Bluegrass Ridge wind farm. That’s good news for Missouri, in particular because this project took place without any federal or state government mandating that it happen.

In the future, if it makes economic sense for your electric co-op to be involved in more renewable energy projects, it will be done and you will benefit from that involvement.

February 24, 2006
For more information, contact:
Jim McCarty, (573) 659-3402
jmccarty@amec.coop