Reno County Wind Energy Taskforce

The purpose of this meeting is to:

• Describe the potential for a commercial wind farm in Reno County 
• Review the steps for the typical development of a wind farm 
• Determine landowner interest in working together with a developer to bring commercial wind to Reno County.

Fourth generation rancher Pete Ferrell will lead a discussion on commercial wind farm development in Reno County, review the steps needed to bring wind energy to Reno County and determine the level of interest among Reno County land owners.

Landowners who own more than 400 acres will receive a personal letter, but every Reno County landowner is welcome to attend the August 11th meeting.

For more than a year, the Reno County Wind Energy Taskforce (RCWET), appointed by the Reno County Commission, has been working to explore the wind energy potential in Reno County

The Task force has completed extensive research, attended numerous meetings and talked with officials at the state and national level about wind energy in Reno County. The task force has determined that wind energy development is possible in Reno County and can provide both direct and indirect economic benefit to Reno County in the following ways:

• payments to landowners
• short term construction jobs 
• long term jobs for operation and maintenance 
• potential for a substantial annual payment in lieu of taxes paid by a wind developer to Reno County. 

---

Didn't your momma teach you to share? Share us.

Users' Comments (12)

Posted by codytalks 08-08-2008 09:13, , Registered   This is what I need... I need someone to tell me what the specific hold ups are on why we don't have a couple dozen of these windmills rolling in the county right now. Is there a legitimate reason or are we over red taping this thing and gonna end up the last county in Kansas to have them?    Seriously not being a smart-alec... I just think we should at least be under construction.   » Reply to this comment...   Posted by farleys_fruit_snacks 08-08-2008 09:42, , Registered   From what I understand, the county does not have a whole lot of regulations for windmills - there are some - they have to be a certain distance from your property line, and a certain distance from eachother, but other than that, there aren't that many regs.    I'm not an expert, but intution tells me that this is probably the scenario we're looking at: We're waiting on two groups -     1. Landowners - the people who own the land that might be in a good location for windmills have to decide that it is to their economic advantage to have these turbines on their property.     If their land is currently planted with crops, they may be waiting until winter so that their crop doesn't get destroyed during the installation process. They also have to calculate to see if the income from the wind turbine leases will cover the lost income from being able to plant on a smaller portion on their land.     From what I understand, as part of the land lease, you also have to allow people access to your property to perform maintenance on the windmills. Some property owners may not feel comfortable letting strangers onto their property at pretty much any time.    2. Wind energy companies & local utilities - When those big rotors turn, there has to be conduit to transfer the electricity to the power grid and someone has to be willing to buy the electricity. It seems like most of the people who are putting up the windmills are companies that are not related to folks like KP&L. So, first they have to work out an agreement with the local electric company to purchase the electricity generated by the windmills at a price that both parties can agree upon. Most likely, some sort of agreement has to be reached allowing the wind energy generation company to tie into the electric company's system. They may also have to work out an agreement to share utility easements, lines, etc.    Unfortunately you can't just plop a windmill down in the middle of a field and start generating electricity. You've got to get someone to let you put it there, you have to pay them, and you have to figure out a way to hook that windmill up to the power grid and get someone to pay you for the electricity it generates. Unfortunatley that seems to be easier said than done.    Maybe all of us WUH folks could chip in, buy some property, and put up the first wind farm in Reno County.   » Reply to this comment...   Posted by farleys_fruit_snacks 08-08-2008 09:47, , Registered   And I was completely and totally serious about buying property and having a WUH windfarm. We could be WUH Wind, Inc.   » Reply to this comment...   Posted by Josie 08-08-2008 10:07, , Registered   Hey, I know this real estate agent that could probably hook you up with the land too! All excellent points FFS. People are all for it but don't realize what it takes to get it going. There are also those people who think it's a great idea but don't want it in their back yard.   » Reply to this comment...   Posted by farleys_fruit_snacks 08-08-2008 10:41, , Registered   Yeah, see, I don't have enough money to do it by myself though - that's why I need partners! Anybody want to pony up???   » Reply to this comment...   Posted by Jolene 08-08-2008 10:49, , Guest   In the last few days I've read two articles in the newspaper which show the increasing trend of alternative energy.     One was a commentary article which stated that Exxon Mobil's worldwide oil production went down 10%. Our biggest oil company is pumping less and that's been the trend for the last 5 quarters. Exxon's stock price has dropped 20% since late May.     If you read the last 5 earnings reports from Exxon, you find that output from mature fields is decreasing.     If you've followed along with Hugo Chavez, you'll already know that most American oil companies have left Venuzuela and Hugo is actively working to supply countries other than the U.S. with Venuzuelan oil.     In May of 2008, Venuzuela still remained the 4th largest importer of oil to the U.S. with 1,030 thousands barrels per day of crude oil.     The other article was about BP announcing it would spent $90 million in a U.S. biofuels company that is developing nonfood based ethanol. They believe that cellulosic ethanol is worth the investment.     Then we have T. Boone who also mentioned Shell Oil's windmill farm in Texas.    Oil companies have the excess cash flow they used to put back into developing new fields to spend on alternative energy projects.     I know the popular notion among some folks is to say, kill 'em off but I think we'd be sorry if we did. For all the headlines about huge oil profits, the reality is they have an effective tax rate of 49% on their profits and are the backbone of the middle class's retirement funds these days. Unless we want to completely kill off the baby boomer's retirement funds - or wound them severely, it doesn't make any sense to kill the oil companies. Just divert them to projects for the future rather than the past.    It's something they've been heading for along the way anyway.    JMO.   » Reply to this comment...   Posted by DottyB 08-08-2008 11:23, , Guest   To have commercial wind in Reno County you need three things to start - good wind speed at 80 meters, check, access to high voltage transmission lines, check-check, landowners who want to lease their land, (hopefully a check, check, check after the meeting Monday night), and a community who is "friendly" to wind, so far....check!     Additionally, you need someone with a quarter of a billion dollars (yes I said billion) willing to put up the capital. Unfortunately no angel investor has stepped forward, although I did pitch it to Pickens, so the Reno County Wind Energy Taskforce has been working to get a wind developer interested in building one here.     There are lots of other great things that make Reno County a terrific place for a wind farm, if you're interested come to Nickerson High School MONDAY night from 7-9 pm.     Trust me when I say the hard work has barely gotten started - if a developer chooses to build a wind farm in Reno County it is normally a 3-5 year process to get through all of the steps needed for permitting (local, state and federal), getting the turbines (currently about two years wait), landowner leases, etc.     Having said that - the economic benefits for Reno County would be huge! Currently in Kansas, County's are receiving between 150,000 and 500,000 annually for the life of the wind farm, 20+ years. Many Counties are starting endowments and others are using their "gift" to start a public interest fund. How about scholarships for Reno County students? Entrepreneurial money for new business ideas, Loan forgiveness program for Reno County grads coming back here to live and work...the possibilities are endless!     Landowners are receiving between $2000-5000 per turbine annually for lease payments, short-term high paying construction jobs, use of local contractors and long term operation and maintenance jobs.     In Sweetwater TX, a declining population base has grown by 2000 people since the wind farm there became operational.    OKAY - off my soapbox, come to the meeting on Monday night to learn more!   » Reply to this comment...   Posted by farleys_fruit_snacks 08-08-2008 11:55, , Registered   $250 million is a lot of money. :-o    We'd have to have one heck of a bake sale to get that kind of cash.    Or we could just get 250 millionaires together.    Or 100 of us could win the lottery.   » Reply to this comment...   Posted by Tom Gray 08-08-2008 13:57, , Guest   Good luck, folks! Sounds like the county is going about things in an intelligent way, and there's no question about the economic benefits.    Regards,  Thomas O. Gray  American Wind Energy Association  www.powerofwind.org  www.awea.org  www.20percentwind.org   » Reply to this comment...   Posted by farleys_fruit_snacks 08-08-2008 17:52, , Registered   I found a good "How to Build a Wind Farm for Dumies" type guide:    http://www.awea.org/pubs/ factsheets/10stwf_fs.pdf    It give 10 steps/things to consider if you're thinking about building a wind farm.   » Reply to this comment...

Comment an article   Name   E-mail Available characters: 600  Notify me of follow-up comments Enter what you see:

More comments...