“If someone is going to be making money off my land, it should be me–not some power company, and especially not an Australian or Spanish company,” adds Tom Arends a Minwind member and a semi-retired grain and hog farmer.

“We must find ways to keep more of these wind-energy dollars within our state and within the Midwest–and we need to collaborate to make it happen,” says Willers. And collaborate they did!

Most other wind farms in the U. S. are owned by private power companies. Minwind Energy is owned by the 300 farmers and community members who came together to develop this wind farm.

The Minwind Energy story is less about gathering allies to support an agenda than it is a case study of the power of a commited community, although as I dig deeper I am sure I will find a lot more about how that community actually came together. If you are doing your homework on whether to own a turbine or to lease your land for someone else’s turbine, you really should read the rest of this story.

There was virtually no opposition to the Minwind project. “That is the beauty of a community project. When neighbors all own part of it and will get a return from it, it really makes a difference,” says Willers.

Traditionally a farm’s value was assessed by soil and water conditions, but with wind power emerging as a lucrative commodity, wind conditions may be part of a farm’s overall value. Whether generating wind electricity for their own use and resale, or by leasing their land for wind generation, farmers and ranchers can increase the productivity of their land and generate a sustained income for years to come.

When farmers lease their land for wind generation projects they can expect to generate between $3,000 to $5,000 per year per turbine. And that figure is rising! Land leases typically run for 25 years. That’s a nice chunk of dollars from a crop that doesn’t deplete the soil, require chemicals to mature to harvest, and renews itself on a minute to minute basis.