His Woodstock Wind Farms in southwestern Minnesota was among the first installed in the state (1999). As a developer, he specializes in locally owned wind projects, and played a key role in shaping the 2005 “C-BED” legislation that gives incentives to “community-based energy developments”—those with local ownership that return a majority of their financial benefits to the communities where they’re situated.
Now Juhl has gone after the capital to make community-based developments more competitive with corporate ones. A reverse merger with a shell company in late June made Juhl Wind, Inc., a publicly traded company (OTCBB: JUHL) with a market capitalization in late July of just under $27 million at $4.30 a share. The deal, led by New York–based Vision Capital, included a private placement of $5.16 million from that firm, but leaves Juhl and his sons as majority owners.
With 120 megawatts of projects installed and another 400 megawatts in process, Juhl says his Woodstock-based company is now positioned to respond more quickly to power-company RFPs. Upfront expenses, such as wind studies and installing anemometers, “are just little things,” Juhl says, “but they’re still $50,000 here and $50,000 there, and it adds up to real money real fast.”
In related news, High Country Energy, LLC, managed by Minneapolis-based developer National Wind, is making an “intrastate” Minnesota-only offering of High Country securities. Delphi Financial Corporation in Minneapolis is handling the offering, which will fund the proposed development of more than 300 megawatts of community-owned wind farms in Dodge, Olmsted, and Mower counties in southeastern Minnesota.
