Forward thinking on wind power in Colorado farm country

For all the talk about the promise of renewable energy to revolutionize manufacturing and add jobs in the Front Range cities, the most obvious impact of renewable energy so far is in farm country.

The 300-foot-tall wind turbines that tower over farms and ranches in Prowers and Weld counties churn out electricity for the big cities and also spin off taxes and lease payments that are changing the economics and the future of farm country. It's not all manna from heaven and golden eggs landing at farmers' doorsteps, though.

"We feel like we're in a race to be there with developers and make sure some of those dollars stay local," said Tony Frank, renewable energy development director for the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union.

Power companies typically pay about $3,000 per turbine per year to lease the land the turbines sit on (siting the turbines is dependent on topography and wind, so how many turbines each farm gets is pretty much up to Mother Nature). That's a nice shot in the arm for many farmers, Frank said, but it would be a much bigger deal if farmers could negotiate partial ownership in the turbines and take a percentage of the money they earn instead of a flat fee.

"Jokingly, we've always said, ‘We may not have reliable weather for farming, but we have two things we can count on: wind and sun,'" said Curtis Sayles, who grows wheat, corn and sunflowers on 5,000 acres near Seibert, on I-70 between Limon and Burlington. "In the back of my mind, we've always had a resource here we could exploit."

In another month, Sayles will put up the first wind turbine in Seibert. His 10,000-kilowatt unit will be a far cry from the 1.5 megawatt giants in Prowers County, but the $45,000 turbine will generate about half of the electricity he uses on the farm. And it will be sort of a proof-of-concept for the idea of individual ownership of wind resources.

"They're only paying people a pittance," Sayles said of the wind energy companies. "When you really look at what percentage of the potential income that's being generated there, it almost insults you. That's why I chose a different model, the individual ownership. I would like to own a bigger piece of the pie."

Farmers banding together to fund expensive projects through co-ops is nothing new. Sayles himself is a partner in a bakery in Kansas. And, with ethanol and biodiesel, farmers aren't strangers to the energy game, either.

Even the green economy has a toehold in the heartland: Sayles uses no-till farming methods, which allows an outside company to sell carbon credits based on the overall carbon capture his fields generate. He just got his first check, for $6,100. It's not much, but it will help underwrite that wind turbine.

In Baca County, in the southeastern corner of the state, the wind blows even harder than it does in Prowers County. So far, though, there's only a single wind turbine in the sparsely populated county. The problem is transmission lines: There aren't any.

"We decided we'd look to put together a big project, big enough for a large developer to come in, put up a wind farm and build transmission lines," said Fred Hefley, a farmer and the head of Baca Green Energy LLC, a group Hefley put together in 2004 with 28 local landowners.

"Those transmission lines are pretty expensive," Hefley said. "You need a lot of megawatts to pay for those lines."

Based on the studies the group has done, Hefley's 6,000-acre farm wouldn't see a single turbine, at least initially. But once the transmission lines go in, it will be much easier for more development to come in and everyone in the county should benefit down the road, Hefley said.

"Those dollars, once they come in, they start circulating," he said. "If we ever get turbines, they'll be here forever."

And wind is the ideal addition to a farmer's portfolio: a stable income source that can smooth out the ups and downs of grain and beef prices, droughts and floods.

"The cow will graze right around those turbines," Hefley said. "We don't lose any productivity from our land. It's just another source of income."

Still, Hefley began working on wind four years ago, when the Colorado Green wind farm went into Prowers County and his son returned to the farm and freed up his time to work on other projects. Developers call all the time, Hefley said, but the wind is only churning up the dust.

"So far, it hasn't made any money, but it's been interesting," Hefley said with a laugh.
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