The Real Windy City

Rock Port, Missouri celebrated becoming the first town being fully powered by the wind. With 4 wind turbines erected on farmland, the town of 1,300 residents will be able to receive 16 million killowatt hours of electricity annually. Since they currently only use 13 million killowatt hours they will be able to sell what they don’t use to the Missouri Joint Municipal Utilities to be used elsewhere. This bodes well for the agricultural community, for farmland usually carries high property taxes in comparison to the income from the yield produced. Now the residents will see additional income, as they can lease a portion of their land to wind-energy developers such as the St. Louis based Wind Capital Group, who currently leases land in Rock Port for their 4 turbines.

Jim Crawford, a natural resource engineer at the University of Missouri Extension, stated that “Anybody who is currently using Rock Port utilities can expect no increase in rates for the next 15 to 20 years.” With 20 years being the lifespan of a wind turbine the residents would then have to have them replaced, but with recycling technology gaining ground in the field of heavy machinery, the cost could be substantially less for turbines 20 years from now.

Oddly enough even more income is coming by way of tourism, since the town has noticed an influx of “outsiders” funnelling in to catch a glimpse of the spectacle in their fields.