The Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation (SMIF) and the Southwest Initiative Foundation (SWIF) hosted a community forum on wind energy development at the Wanamingo Community Center on July 9, 2009. SWIF and its home territory in southwestern part of the state have seen a great deal of wind development in the past few years. With the rapid growth of wind development in Southeastern Minnesota, SWIF teamed up with its southeastern Minnesota counterpart, SMIF, to hold this educational event about wind energy. About 150 community members attended.
The forum was split into four parts. First, Eric Lantz of the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, gave a presentation on community wind economics. Lantz concluded that community-based projects had a “real advantage” in terms of local economic development value over traditional absentee-owned corporate wind developments of similar size.
Then, Goodhue Wind developer Chuck Burdick joined several others on a panel discussion about wind development. Panelists walked through the wind development process, covering topics such as land leases, financing, power purchase agreements, transmission interconnection, and construction.
After a short break, the forum continued with a panel on the technical aspects of wind development, including wind analysis, siting, health & safety, and environmental issues. Audience members posed questions directly to top experts, including John Schladweiler of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Carl Herbrandson of the state’s Department of Health, Ron Peterson of Westwood Professional Services, and Kevin Romuld of National Wind Assessments.
The final panel highlighted community and landowner perspectives on wind development, with former Minnesota Agriculture Commissioner and wind-turbine-owner Jim Nichols, Dean Runde of the Pioneer Prairie wind project in Northern Iowa, John Meyer of the High Country Energy advisory board, and Tiff Thompson, one of the developers of the community-based Goodhue Wind project.
Overall, the three-and-a-half hour event was packed with information from experts, 150 audience members, and a number of great questions. We created a short video of some of the highlights from the forum for those who were unable to attend; if you would like view the video, please contact Doug Nowicki or Wayne Gadient at 651-309-0399.
Watch highlights from the Wanamingo Wind Forum right here on our website
