"It's not so much a train that's coming. It's here. We have to deal with it," said David J. George, Kandiyohi's chief executive.
Washington Post - Willmar Municipal Utilities invested nearly $10 million in a pair of 256-foot towers to capture the prairie wind here, about 100 miles west of Minneapolis. Gomm calculates that the wind power will cost less than the equivalent in coal-powered energy and, when the debt has been paid in 12 years or so, the electricity will come virtually free for as long as the turbines are standing.
Along the way, Willmar will have reduced carbon emissions and made progress toward reaching a state requirement that Minnesota generate 25 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2025. Gomm, who estimates the turbines will produce 3 to 5 percent of the town's energy, aims to build more.
"This is the biggest investment Willmar Municipal Utilities has ever made," engineer Wes Hompe said, standing beneath a huge new turbine outside town.
"What makes it worthwhile? This is the future."
Federal authorities are investing billions through grants and tax breaks to promote alternative power. President Obama predicted this year that renewable fuel capacity will double in "the next few years."
Within the renewables world, Lovins suspects economics will increasingly favor small and medium-sized projects in place of vast wind and solar farms located on remote mountain ridges or desert floors far from population centers. Transmission is costly and, as utilities across the country have learned, the routing of new power lines often generates opposition and lawsuits.
As Lovins sees it, the long-term trends show a shift from traditional energy sources toward renewables -- the more local, the better.
Renewable fuels "will continue to take over the market because they have lower costs and lower financial risks than central thermal," predicted Lovins, chairman of the Rocky Mountain Institute, a Colorado think tank. "It's driven by economics and its driven by climate and security concerns. And all three are going in the same direction."
Please read full from Washington Post
