Comparison: Wind Power Potential, Rock Port MO vs. Madison SD

I just got a really good reply from Mayor Hexom on the potential for Madison to replicate the success of Rock Port, Missouri, in obtaining more than 100% of its electricity needs from wind power. I had noted previously that Mayor Hexom had said wind power could cost the city 20 cents per kilowatt-hour. I found this amount surprising, especially considering that John Deere's turbines in Rock Port generate juice for 5.5 cents/kWh (and Uncle Sam knocks 2 cents off that with a subsidy). Mayor Hexom explains that his 20 cents/kWh figure assumes smaller wind units, like those in Howard and Pipestone, not the big megawatt-plus beasties going up in the new wind farms. Economies of scale also help: as noted previously, Rock Port's four turbines were made all the more feasible by the fact that Wind Capital Group was already putting up a bigger wind farm in the neighborhood. Adding the Rock Port bump to the project cut costs significantly over building four turbines independently.

Mayor Hexom also pointed out that a look at the wind potential map will show Madison isn't in as good a wind generation area as places like Wessington Springs, where Heartland is involved with that big wind farm on the ridge.

Look at the map... they have maps for that?

Of course they do!

First, let's look at the U.S. Department of Energy's wind resource map for Missouri (click image to enlarge):


Zoom in on the northwest corner of that picture. I've marked the rough location Rock Port. America's first 100% wind-powered town sits in a mostly tan region—tan meaning Class 2, "marginal." There is a smattering of orange—Class 3, "fair"—in the neighborhood. Compared to the rest of Missouri, Rock Port is as good as it gets for wind potential.

Now, compare that to the wind resource map for South Dakota (click image to enlarge):


Holy crap! No wonder Missouri folks fall over when they come visit us. Look at all that wind!

Our fair city of Madison sits in the midst of Class 3 and Class 4 ("good"!) terrain. We're pikers compared to the Coteau des Prairies and most of the state west of the Jim River Valley, but we still stand tall—slantwise—compared to Rock Port and 80% of America.

So note, Madison wind power boosters: With Class 2, maybe Class 3 wind, Rock Port is able to get more power than it needs from four 1.25-megawatt turbines. With our Class 3, maybe Class 4 wind, we could line Highway 34 with the same turbines and probably get even more usable juice.

Madison's "problem" isn't that we don't have good wind; it's that wind farm developers can get even better wind just 80 miles away in a couple directions.

But if we're interested in local power generation (and dare I say it: self-sufficiency?), these maps support the idea that if Rock Port, Missouri can do it, so can Madison, South Dakota.

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p.s.: Did you hear the one about the boy in Malawi who built a working wind turbine from junk and pictures from a book in the library? No joke: William Kamkwamba. Totally inspirational. Kamkwamba is Africa's Dick Wiedenman... using his junk powers for good!

Mo' from Rock Port MO: M.O. for Historic Preservation and Downtown Development

Atchison County Memorial Building, downtown Rock Port, MO

Reading up on Rock Port, Missouri, the first 100% wind-powered town in America, I happened upon the website for Rock Port's Atchison County Memorial Building. Built in 1921 in honor of World War I veterans, the building is a National Historic Landmark, says the website, but it is falling apart. Rather than see this impressive edifice crumble, locals have formed a non-profit foundation to restore the Memorial Building and protect its place as a cultural center for the community. The building still gets some use as a theater, and the Foundation wants to keep it going. The Foundation's goals include fixing up the building inside and out, installing a veterans museum and walk of honor, and establish an ongoing maintenance endowment.

The first phase, exterior renovation, is expected to cost $548,000. Subsequent phases will rack up another $1,750,000.

So Rock Port, town of 1300, looks at that big price tag, and do they say, "No way—we can't afford that"? Nope: they start fundraising. The Foundation has raised $200,000 so far, including a number of individuals and groups who have each kicked in more than $5000, and they are applying for various tax credits through the Neighborhood Assistance Program.

Masonic Temple,
downtown Madison, SD

So look at that building: impressive architecture, big columns, a unique building in the middle of town that everyone sees as they pass through. A building that can establish the identity of a the downtown area and the entire community. A solid old building that a community effort could restore to grandeur.

Sound familiar, Madisonites? Anyone getting any bright ideas?

Rock Port Missouri: 125% Wind Power... from John Deere

Rod Goeman and I have suggested that Madison and Lake County might do well to build a local wind power system. Winona County, Minnesota, has done it; why can't we?

Cost might be one reason. Mayor Hexom has said municipal wind would cost 20 cents per kilowatt-hour, compared to 3.1 cents for juice from WAPA. Sextuple your electric bill? Not an easy sell.

But the mayor's math apparently doesn't hold water in Missouri. Visit Rock Port, in the northwest tip of Missouri. See that big windmill on their webpage? The city has four of them, built in cooperation with John Deere, pumping out up to 125% of the city's power needs.

Yes, John Deere. Can energy get any greener than that?

Now this isn't municipal wind: Wind Capital Group of St. Louis put this project together, and was able to make the Loess Hills project in Rock Port affordable by building it at the same time as its nearby 24-turbine Cow Branch wind farm. But thanks to a little foresight and hustle, the 1300 residents of Rock Port now get much of their electricity from right where they live. Local generation saves them at least $60,000 a year in wheeling fees, the fees the city would pay for electricity lost over transmission lines from more remote sources.

It is perhaps worth noting that Wind Capital Group is run by Tom Carnahan, youngest son of a former governor and a former senator. He quit his surely lucrative law practice in 2005 to get into the wind industry. His mom gave him a Don Quixote statue when he started his wind business, but he has no regrets about tilting at these windmills. He's a Missouri boy through and through, and he is driven by a desire to serve rural Missouri in a way that other developers didn't have the guts and foresight to do.

Who will be the courageous South Dakota investor who will learn from Rock Port, Missouri, and help our own small towns become energy independent? If Rock Port can do it, so can Madison, and Flandreau, and Hartford, and all our neighbors. Someone get on the horn to John Deere, and let's make some power!

p.s.: I'm not the only one who thinks clean/green energy technology may be the next economic boom.

pp.s.: Don't just dream big: dream huge: maybe green energy can bring peace to Israel and Palestine.

Stimulus Already Putting Hardhats to Work

They call Missouri the "Show Me" State. Let's make that the "Show me how to put the stimulus money to work" State. On yesterday's All Things Considered, Missy Shelton reported* that Missouri state government put a list of stimulus projects together in December. The Missouri Department of Transportation didn't see any reason they couldn't be the first to put that federal money to work. The day President Obama signed the stimulus into law, one road construction firm rehired 40 laid-off workers. Missy Shelton's colleague at Missouri Public Radio, Jennifer Moore, reports that Journegan Quarries in Ozark, Missouri, is also calling back workers to meet the demand they'll get from a project to add passing lanes to Route 60. Ultimately that road project will create 200 jobs. MODoT has three other big job-creating road and bridge projects ready to go now.

South Dakota has posted its first list of road projects, but I don't hear any shovels yet. Missouri's already getting to work—let's get moving!

*My apologies: As of 08:45 CST, NPR appears not to have posted the audio of Missy Shelton's Missouri portion of the report.