This article, by Brian Ojanpa, originally appeared in the Mankato Free Press.
A Mankato-area renewable energy advocacy group is looking to harness the wind, albeit on a modest scale. The Region Nine Renewable Energy Task Force is courting prospective small developers for a wind turbine bulk-buy project that would place windmills on farms and other rural properties in south-central and southwest Minnesota.
“We’re not out to make money; we’re just here to provide the technical assistance,” said Jon Hammel, economic development specialist for Region Nine Development Commission.
“What we’re trying to show is that renewable energy makes sense for our region because we’re completely dependent on others for our energy resources.”
The citizen task force has been scouting potential area sites to accommodate small turbines of under 40 kilowatts that could provide much or all of an owner’s energy needs.
Task force members said a small-scale effort is more viable than large wind energy projects that employ mammoth turbines of 1.5 megawatts and above, an often problematic scenario due to prevailing local ordinances and public NIMBY (not in my backyard) concerns.
James Dontje, group chairman and director of the Johnson Center for Environmental Innovation at Gustavus, said the task force project is aimed at helping rural homeowners and businesses with turbine start-up issues.
An example of a small-scale wind energy effort can be found at Nora Unitarian Universalist Church in rural Hanska, where a 20-kilowatt turbine members installed earlier this year for $100,000 is satisfying virtually all of the congregation’s power needs.
