99 year leases at $4,500 per windmill:
Wind farm offers promise for area
By STEVEN K. PAULSON
Associated Press writer Sunday, May 20, 2007
PEETZ, Colo. -- With agriculture and other economic opportunities dwindling, residents of this plains country town in northeast Colorado are hoping promises of a windfall from a $700 million renewable energy project are not just a chimera.
On Wednesday, Gov. Bill Ritter helped FPL Energy break ground for a new wind farm, the second-largest in the nation, in Logan County. He told farmers and residents they will now be able to farm energy, what proponents are calling "the other cash crop."
"It's an economic development tool in Colorado we think is great for rural communities, great for the environment," Ritter said as hundreds gathered under a tent to watch the groundbreaking. Fifty-eight wind generators spun in the background, part of the first crop to demonstrate the project's feasibility.
FPL Energy's Peetz Table facility will produce 267 General Electric turbines by the end of the year, generating 400 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power 120,000 homes. The utility will build a 78-mile transmission line to connect Peetz Table to the power grid at Xcel Energy's Pawnee substation near Brush, 80 miles northeast of Denver.
The project is expected to bring 350 workers to Peetz, a town of just 225 residents near the Nebraska border. They'll need places to stay and food to eat. But some in this farming community worry what will happen once the work is complete. Only 20 permanent workers will run the wind farm, and residents acknowledge they don't have the technical expertise to hold those jobs.
"It won't benefit the town as much as it will benefit the farmers who are getting paid to allow the turbines on their property," said Mel Nelson, a retired farmer who lives in town and has lived in Logan County all his life.
But Joan Hof, part-time town treasurer, said the wind farms will help Logan County by offsetting residents' property taxes by an estimated $2 million a year. She said the project will help farmers avoid bankruptcy by providing badly needed income when farm income drops.
"That's part of our challenge, making sure people understand we bring more than just clean energy. There will be a lot of tax dollars coming to town," said Mary Wells, spokeswoman for FPL Energy.
Wells said the project will directly help 140 landowners who are coping with six years of drought, paying them for leases for wind turbines and transmission lines.
Gordon Vallier, 61, said he signed a 99-year lease with the company and will get paid $4,500 a year per tower. Vallier refused to say how many towers will be built on his property, saying he doesn't like to brag. But he said the drought took a heavy toll, forcing him to sell all of his cattle and reducing his wheat crop.
"We haven't had a decent crop in six years. This will go a long ways toward keeping the farm afloat," he said.
Vallier said he thought Ritter has tried to downplay the wind farms' aesthetic effect on a scenic, wind-blown plateau. But he said he understands why Ritter made clean energy the main theme of his campaign, promising across the state to develop a new energy economy.
"He has to play to the green crowd in Denver," Vallier said.
Ritter has declared he wants to make Colorado the renewable energy capital of the nation. In April, he attended a groundbreaking for a $60 million solar power plant in the San Luis Valley, 160 miles south of Denver.
That plant and Logan County's new wind farm will help utilities meet Colorado's mandate that they obtain at least 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020. Voters originally set the standard at 10 percent -- which Xcel is on track to meet this year -- and state lawmakers doubled the percentage this year.
Some critics note that cleaner energy sources such as biofuels have drawbacks. Biofuels drive up the price of feed for cattle ranchers, leave residue that must be disposed of and require significant amounts of natural gas, although engineers are finding new ways to deal with those problems. Others say solar power, like wind power, leaves a big footprint on the land.
Environmentalists acknowledge the trade-offs but supported bills in the Legislature this year to promote renewable energy because they believe the cleaner fuel and power are worth it.
Wade Troxell, associate dean for research and economic development at Colorado State University, said Ritter may have oversold the economic benefits of renewable energy by promising it can save rural communities. Towns still can capitalize on growing interest in the field, though they need to be flexible because new technologies will probably change as the market grows.
"Personally, I don't think there is a silver bullet. I think rural communities need to develop other strategies, but this could be a catalyst," Troxell said.
For his part, Peetz Mayor Greg Nienhuser said he believes the new wind farm will deter residents from leaving for greener pastures.
"We're going to be able to keep some of the farm kids on the farm. We look at it as a tremendous long-term benefit," he said, noting that Peetz doubled the size of its school and water and sewer plant, hoping for growth long before wind farms were even on the horizon.
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