New company bringing energy ownership to communities

It Takes a Village to Raise a Turbine: Making the Case for Community-Owned Windpower

by Francesca Rheannon

SocialFunds.com -- Wind is taking the lead in renewable energy, at least at this stage of technological development for renewables. In the United States, the dominant model for wind development is centralized, where utility companies build large wind farms in a few places and send the electricity over wires to power homes and businesses far away. Critics charge that a significant portion of energy is lost during transmission, but utilities say they have the economies of scale necessary for such large projects.

But another model exists: community owned wind power. Dan Juhl is a leader in community wind development. His company, Juhl Wind Development (OTCBB: JUHL.OB), is helping communities around the country get power through locally owned wind energy cooperatives. The company has developed approximately one hundred and forty megawatts—several hundred million dollars worth—of community-based wind projects. The company went public on June 25, 2008.

(More here.)

(Almost) Free Energy!

First U.S. Town Powered Completely By Wind

By Andrea Thompson, Senior Writer, livescience.com

Rock Port, Mo., has an unusual crop: wind turbines.

The four turbines that supply electricity to the small town of 1,300 residents make it the first community in the United States to operate solely on wind power.

"That's something to be very proud of, especially in a rural area like this — that we're doing our part for the environment," said Jim Crawford, a natural resource engineer at the University of Missouri Extension in Columbia.

A map published by the U.S. Department of Energy indicates that northwest Missouri has the state's highest concentrations of wind resources and contains a number of locations that are potentially suitable for utility-scale wind development. The four turbines that power Rock Port are part of a larger set of 75 turbines across three counties that are used to harvest the power of wind.

(More here.)

Creating fairness in the tax code for wind power

Another example of how the tax code is skewed to help the rich and how one congressman is attempting to fix it:

An energy incentive is drifting in the wind

By JOHN FARRELL
Minneapolis Star Tribune
May 1, 2008

A wind turbine can power up to 600 homes, but 600 homeowners can't get together to own a wind turbine. Why? Because federal law makes local ownership virtually impossible.

Here's how. The federal wind tax credit of 2 cents per kilowatt-hour can be taken only against taxes on passive income. Passive income does not include wages or salary; it only counts income from investments or real estate. Most Americans do not have any passive income. Those who do have very little. Thus wind turbines are financed by a handful of firms that attract investments from a few hundred or a few thousand wealthy individuals who can use the tax incentives.

The federal wind-energy incentives -- up for renewal this year -- discriminate against local ownership and favor absentee ownership. They also severely restrict the number of investors who can finance wind-energy generators.

Changing the incentives would pave the way for rural Americans to own wind turbines and for the economic benefits of wind energy to truly accrue to the host community's advantage. It would reward self-reliance. And it would level the playing field for average citizens.

Continued here. John Farrell is a research associate with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in Minneapolis. More about the proposal is here.