National Wind, LLC (National Wind) has formed a new subsidiary Little Rock Wind, LLC (Little Rock Wind). Little Rock Wind is seventh Minnesota-based, community-owned wind energy company of National Wind. Little Rock Wind has been formed in partnership with several Big Stone county community members, who form a board of advisors that will work with National Wind to develop up to 150 megawatts of wind energy generation within the county.
Little Rock Wind will be holding a public landowner meeting on Tuesday, March 17, 2009 at the Clinton Memorial Building in Clinton, Minnesota. The goal of the meeting is to introduce the project and its community wind development model to Big Stone county landowners. Landowners will have the chance to meet with Little Rock Wind’s founding board members and National Wind’s development team, and learn how they can become involved.
Little Rock Wind recently opened an office in Ortonville, Minnesota to better serve local landowners and to facilitate community involvement in the project. The office is located at 890 Pine Ave in Ortonville and can be reached by phone at 320-281-4900.
An important first step in developing wind energy is securing the land needed to construct the wind projects. National Wind’s field specialist, Jesse Hopkins-Hoel, is working closely with the advisory board and area landowners to represent the project and to gain landowner participation. This includes helping landowners understand the economic benefits this development can provide.
“Little Rock Wind, as a locally owned wind energy company, is the sort of project that has the best interests of the landowners and farmer’s best interests at heart,” says Brent Olson, one of the founders and an advisory board member of Little Rock Wind. “We encourage landowners to attend the meeting, to hear the presentation, and learn how community wind development in Big Stone County can be a benefit to themselves and their community. Bringing this project to fruition will provide many economic benefits to us, our children, and our grandchildren while strengthening our local communities and providing a more stable energy future for us all.”
“National Wind’s community wind projects such as Little Rock are unique in the industry – we are developing utility-scale projects using a true community wind model.” says Bill Smeaton, senior wind developer, National Wind. “We offer competitive land use payments, but our model also provides opportunities for local landowners to share in any revenues from a successful project. In addition, our local board of advisor structure adds the ‘voice of the community’ to the development process.”