Minnesota wind farm plans becalmed by lack of a customer

Central Minn. wind farm plans becalmed by lack of a customer

Associated Press
December 26, 2011

PAYNESVILLE, MINN. - A wind farm that was to be the first such large-scale operation in central Minnesota is about a year behind schedule because, its developer says, it can't find a utility company willing to buy its electricity.

Edina-based Geronimo Wind Energy has the necessary permits to build the 95-megawatt wind farm but not the necessary customers. Geronimo spokesman Charlie Daum attributed the delay to a slow market.

"That's really the only thing that's holding us back right now," Daum said, adding that the situation was "not a concern as much as a frustration."

By now, as many as 60 turbines, each about 400 feet high, were supposed to be scattered across fields north of Paynesville, producing electricity and income for local farmers, according to the St. Cloud Times. Geronimo planned to erect the turbines this year and expected them to be generating electricity between July and September.

But progress stalled as the company failed to secure a buyer for the power.

Geronimo has sought buyers inside and outside Minnesota, Daum said.

Some reports have suggested the young wind industry is losing momentum. Suzlon Wind Energy Corp., a turbine manufacturer, cut 110 jobs at its Pipestone factory two years ago, and other companies have had difficulty securing credit in the three-year-long financial downturn.

One state official, however, said the wind market remains strong. Department of Commerce spokesman Matt Swenson said companies are still looking to take advantage of a federal tax credit for wind development that expires in 12 months.

More than 500 megawatts of wind power were installed last year in Minnesota, the most in a single year in state history, Swenson said.

Geronimo has already signed an agreement to sell power from a separate wind farm, the 200-megawatt Prairie Rose Wind Farm in southern Minnesota, to Xcel Energy, utility spokesman Tom Hoen said.

That power will help Xcel meet a 2007 state standard requiring the utility to derive 30 percent of its power from renewable resources by 2020.

Xcel's latest resource plan said the utility will continue to explore opportunities to procure more wind-generated power before the tax credit expires. However, the plan says, "While we are eager to obtain low-priced, cost-effective wind generation for our customers, we seek to avoid the risks of incomplete or failed projects."

Despite the uncertainty over the Paynesville project, Daum said Geronimo is continuing its preliminary planning work so the company will be ready to build quickly.

"We think it's a great project," he said. "We really do want to get it built."

I think wind energy is one of the biggest scams ever perpetrated on the American people. When something is viable only with a gov't subsidy it's probably not in the taxpayers best interest. The thought and meaning is well. The execution is not.

This is what happens when the government interferes in free markets by creating incentives for producers to create a supply for which there is no real demand. Next will be laws requiring energy companies to make wind a certain percentage of their output, creating a false demand for their subsidized supply.

Honestly, these fucking morons on the Hill NEVER learn, do they

I am sick of the green bullshit, it's all a scam, liberals know it too. It's a lie that has unfortunately worked on many people and I hope it dies off.