We've written before about the need to extend the production tax credit for the wind energy industry and Congressman Walz's proposal to open it to local investors, as well as the importance of the wind industry in Southern Minnesota.
NuWire Investor, a source that covers "news, trends and opportunities in the alternative investment marketplace," has published an article about Community Wind Power: Local investors seek to transform the rural energy landscape. It's largely about the economic benefits of local investment in wind to rural communities:
As is the case with almost all renewable energy investment opportunities, viability depends largely on public policy decisions. Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) has proposed a bill that “would allow wind project investors to access up to $40,000 of the PTC against ordinary income,” a move that Farrell claimed “could help as many as 30 percent of Americans access federal incentives for owning renewable power.” With the remaining U.S. presidential candidates all pledging more commitment to energy independence, it’s likely that legislation will produce a richer environment for clean energy investors in coming years.
Even under current policy conditions, community wind projects are held in high regard by both investors and local communities. Minwind Energy, one of the first farmer-owned wind farms in Minnesota, is touted by Windustry as “an innovative business model that allows local investors to own their own commercial scale wind turbines. The group installed four 950 kW turbines (Minwind I and II) in 2002 near Luverne, [Minn.] and seven 1,650 kW turbines (Minwind III-IX) in December 2004 near Beaver Creek, [Minn].”
The importance of local ownership is not simply a concern of investors, it also has an impact on the local economy. In the University of Minnesota study cited earlier, the economic benefits of a locally-owned wind farm are compared to those of corporate owned farms which have no local investment. While the findings are recognized as an upper-bound estimation, it is suggested that “community wind has 5 times the economic impact on local value added, and 3.4 times the impact on local job creation, relative to a corporate-owned development.”
Interesting potential. The piece underscores the difference between serious policy making about energy and the ideological pandering to a perceived base that we're seeing on the part of the NRCC and the endorsed GOP candidate in the First Congressional District. Rather than being lauded as an economic driver, the PTC is used as a based for a cheap shot by national Republicans. The DFL notes the extremism of the candidate's energy proposals in general here.
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