Iberdrola Renewables, Inc. (Iberdrola Renewables) and its partners have dedicated the Elm Creek wind power project on July 11, 2009. The Elm Creek wind farm consists of 66 wind turbines, each as tall as a 27-story building. The project encompasses about 9,500 acres of land leased from 56 local landowners who continue to use the land for corn and soybean farming. The Elm Creek project is located in Jackson County, Minnesota.
Elm Creek, like the Trimont Area Wind Farm before it, was born in the minds of local farmers, said Tim Seck, director of development for Iberdrola Renewables. They wanted to get into the wind farming business and performed much of the initial development work.
When we won a power purchase agreement from Great River Energy for the Trimont project, we knew we would not be able to secure turbines or build a project. So we said ‘let’s bring in the professionals,’ said Neal VonOhlen, a landowner and chief manager of the landowner groups for both Trimont and Elm Creek.
After a search of wind power companies, the landowners picked Iberdrola Renewables, then PPM Energy, to build and operate the Trimont project. As a result of the working relationship at Trimont, Iberdrola Renewables and the local landowners partnered again to develop the Elm Creek project. In return for performing much of the up front development work, participating farmers receive both lease payments and revenue participation. It amounts to about $1.5 million every year, spread among the landowners of the Trimont and Elm Creek projects.
Meanwhile, the two projects pay property taxes to Jackson and Martin counties ranging from $700,000-$800,000 every year.
The Trimont model worked so well, everybody wanted to do it again, VonOhlen said.
I am thrilled to see another wind energy project dotting the horizon in Southwest Minnesota, said Congressman Tim Walz. The First District is blessed with tremendous wind energy resources that are extremely important to our economy. The Elm Creek Wind Power Project is an important source of revenue to our farmers whose land contains the wind turbines and also for Jackson County, which will receive more than $500,000 annually in additional property tax revenues. I recently introduced two bills in Congress to help farmers and rural families take advantage of incentives to expand wind production and I hope to see more wind projects in the future as a result of the legislation.
This is another big day for Minnesota as we continue to lead the nation in the production of renewable energy, said Bill Glahn, director of the Minnesota Office of Energy Security. Projects like Elm Creek Wind will help us achieve our goal of generating 25% of our energy from renewable sources by the year 2025.
Each of the projects generates enough electricity to serve the annual energy needs of nearly 29,000 Minnesota homes. Great River Energy purchases all the output from both the Trimont and Elm Creek projects to serve the energy needs of its 28 member cooperatives.
With the addition of the Elm Creek Wind Farm, Great River Energy has more than 315 megawatts of wind capacity under contract — the most of any cooperative in the country, said Mark Rathbun, Great River Energy’s renewable energy project leader. This gives us a great start toward meeting the state of Minnesota’s renewable energy standard.
Typically, wind farms take only 1-2% of the land out of agricultural use; the rest can continue to be used as before.
Iberdrola Renewables currently is in the permitting process with the hope of building the 150-MW Elm Creek 2 in 2010 or 2011.