Rising Wind

The Wind—and Investors—at Their Backs

Minnesota ranks fourth in the nation in wind energy production at present, according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), a trade group based in Washington, D.C. (See table on next page.) That ranking has partly to do with geography and wind patterns, partly with energy demand, and partly with public policy.

Most of Minnesota’s 895 mega-watts of installed wind energy capacity comes from turbines concentrated along the Buffalo Ridge, a formation that rises 2,000 feet above the surrounding landscape and stretches across the southwestern corner of the state. Wind maps prepared by WindLogics, a St. Paul wind resource analysis firm, show that wind occurrence and speeds on the Buffalo Ridge—the “wind regime” that Wolf refers to—are among the highest in the state.

Minnesota’s ranking might be lower if 230-foot turbines had to be placed close to cities or in locations valued for tourism. “Minnesota’s wind resource is located in a rural area where people are receptive to wind projects,” says Ian Krygowski, a regional project development manager for EnXco. “If the wind resource were located on the North Shore, people might not be as receptive to putting up turbines where they also have pretty vacation homes.”

Turbines could also be fewer in number here if Minnesota had fewer people. AWEA ranks North Dakota first among states for its wind energy potential, but only 14th in production, with 178 megawatts. That’s partly because North Dakota doesn’t have the “load,” or demand, for electricity that Minnesota has, says Steve Wilson, renewable energy purchaser for Xcel Energy. (It’s also because North Dakota meets its needs and exports electricity from its abundant supply of low-quality coal.) It’s cheaper to produce electricity close to the demand for it, Wilson says. Some energy is lost as it travels over transmission lines, and the greater the distance it has to travel, the more expensive those lines are to build, a cost utilities cover and pass on to customers.

What finally put Minnesota’s wind energy advantages to work were mandates, beginning with 1994 legislation that required Xcel to begin providing some of the state’s electricity from renewable sources in exchange for permission to store more spent nuclear fuel at its Prairie Island plant near Red Wing. Minnesota’s first utility-scale wind farm went on line that same year. 

But it isn’t just mandates that have had turbines springing up around Minnesota. Investors began backing wind projects to reap the benefits of the 1992 federal Production Tax Credit, making it possible for even small players like Ryan Wolf and his family to get into the wind energy business.

The Harvest

Wolf’s first wind project was Wolf Wind Development, five 1.25 megawatt turbines on land his family’s hog farm in Adrian leased from a relative who lives nearby. “Basically, we wanted to diversify the family farm, but the farm was too far away from transmission lines,” Wolf says, so a cousin whose property was better situated was brought into the project. Wind doesn’t blow continuously, and unreliability is one knock against wind energy. But wind energy does generate a continuous flow of money, unlike traditional—and volatile—agricultural commodities, so farmers like Wolf’s family are attracted to the idea of harvesting wind.