The local rural development staff here in southern Oregon does not seem to know about grants and loans available from Federal sources for funding of wind turbines on agricultural property. How do I find out specific information about Federal Farm Bill support for wind turbine development?

quote:

Binnewies

Hi Binnewies-

The following is from a http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003070559_wind19m.html article by Hal Bernton, dated Monday, June 19, 2006.

--For many years, the wind was an unwelcome presence on John and Iva Grabner's wheat farm north of the Columbia River Gorge. Time after time, it would blow away clouds that might otherwise have offered rain for their crops.
--Today, such gusts bring prosperity.
--Big Horn project comes online, the Grabners will receive more than $160,000 in annual royalties.
--Big Horn is part of the dramatic expansion of wind power in rural Washington, according to the Renewable Northwest Project.
--Some of the projects are bankrolled by developers, others by private and public utilities.
--Big Horn project is being developed by Portland-based PPM Energy.
--The electricity will be sold to three California public utilities under a long-term contract.
--To these utilities, the project "offers stable prices, and competitive prices, and that's a huge advantage to us," said John Roukema, a spokesman for Silicon Valley Power, one of the California utilities.

If your land is Class 4(high)/5/6 (one Oregon Wind Resource Map is here), is easily accessible by heavy equipment, and is close to a high-capacity transmission line, you may be able to do a deal with PPM Energy or with the CA utilities that need electricity just as badly as crops need plenty of rain.

You can search online for Request For Proposal (RFP) made by the utilities and offer to work with them in harvesting wind power. (Remember the value of "green credits," a second revenue stream, in the discussions. Also consider installing sub-1 MW turbines (if you get to that point) for their easier installation and proven track-record (compared to the 1+ MW machines). Spare parts, "wear-and-tear," and initial availability are concerns.

Perhaps you and some neighbors can form an LLC or co-op to reap the most benefit from every wind day.

Best wind!

KelM

We've got some information on our website (click here or here). These pages also have links to official USDA information.

Another great source of information about grants and incentives is The Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency. They have lots of state-by-state information, and also information about federal incentives.

Marin