Towns Go Local For Cleaner Power

A tiny electric cooperative in Willmar, Minn., is looking to get more of its energy from local sources rather than importing electricity from far-off power plants.

Willmar Municipal Utilities invested nearly $10 million to install a pair of 256-foot-tall wind turbines to harness the prairie wind about in the town, 100 miles east of Minneapolis. The company estimates the electricity from the turbines will meet about 3 percent to 5 percent of the town's energy needs and will cost less than the equivalent in coal-fired power.

"This is the biggest investment Willmar Municipal Utilities has ever made," engineer Wes Hompe said, standing beneath a huge new turbine outside town. "What makes it worthwhile? This is the future."

Willmar is at the frontier of a movement known as community power, the idea that towns can liberate themselves from imported energy using local resources such as wind and solar. While experts don't see towns ever moving entirely off the grid, supporters say small-scale renewable energy could play a much larger role meeting future power demand.

In Rock Port, Mo., for example, wind already meets more than 100 percent of the town's annual energy needs. California's "Million Solar Roofs" project is spending millions to assist property owners in installing solar arrays on their homes (Peter Slevin, Washington Post, Oct. 13). -- PT

From: http://www.greenwire.com/