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Posted on Feb 23, 2007
By Clinton Thomas
St. Joe News Press
Bucks in the Wind
Rock Port could become the nation's first town to get all electricity from wind
ROCK PORT, Mo. - Months of monitoring wind speeds and a night spent in a cornfield with a hand-held GPS device have finally paid off for one Northwest Missouri community.
Wind Capital Group and the John Deere Corp. will build four wind turbines on the bluffs west of Rock Port. The development could make the town the first in the United States to obtain all of its electricity from wind turbines.
Eric Chamberlain, project manager for Wind Capital Group, checked with several government and wind-related organizations and none of them could find another American community with such reliance on wind power.
"We found one in Denmark, but no one has heard about anything close to this in the United States," Mr. Chamberlain said.
The Loess Hills Wind Farm will consist of four 1.25-megawatt turbines placed atop 250-foot towers. At five megawatts per day, the wind will generate more than 100 percent of the town's annual electricity, according to Rock Port Municipal Utilities Manager Tim Taylor.
"On a day like (Thursday), we're only using two megawatts of electricity, so we can use that and sell the rest back to the grid," Mr. Taylor said. "There will be some high-usage days in the summer when the wind is not blowing where we'll have to buy power from the grid, but overall it's more than 100 percent."
John Deere's wind energy division financed the farm, which is expected to come online late this summer. Without John Deere's assistance, the community wouldn't have been able to afford such a technological leap.
"That's the best part about this whole thing, it didn't cost the city of Rock Port one penny," Mr. Taylor said.
After viewing a commercial wind farm, Mr. Chamberlain became interested in bringing the idea to his hometown in Rock Port. Mr. Chamberlain, who also operates a local funeral home, obtained wind monitoring devices from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and discovered a wind farm would be viable.
Dirt work on the Loess Hills Wind Farm and the 24-turbine Cow Branch Wind Farm, also owned by Wind Capital Group, east of town began earlier this month. The St. Louis-based company is also building wind farms in Nodaway and Gentry counties.
Combined with plans for a 30-million-gallon biodiesel plant and a 100-million-gallon ethanol plant near Phelps City, the two wind farms could make Atchison County an alternative energy capital of the Midwest.
"We've been looking for a way to improve economic development, and now we've found our niche in that area," said county commissioner Kent Fisher.
Mr. Fisher said tax dollars from the incoming renewable energy producers will bring an important stream of revenue to the community, especially the school district.
Wind power also will generate revenue for Rock Port Municipal Utilities. Mr. Taylor said the city will spend that money on capital improvements for municipal infrastructure. Customers may see their electric rates decline in the long run, but the city will wait until the turbines have been online for at least a year to know how much money will be available, Mr. Taylor said.
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