Kilowatts Per Acre?

The breeziest part of Missouri is attracting more interest for companies wanting to set up wind farms. Two more companies are leasing land in northwest missouri’s Atchison County, which is considered part of Missouri where the wind speeds are consistently high enough to turn the big blades of a generating windmill. Earlier this year, Wind Capital Group, a Missouri company, announced plans to build two of those farms. Ground has been broken for the first. A Kansas company, TradeWind Energy. has leases on 20-thousand acres. Community Wind Energy, from Pennsylvania, says it also wants to move into the area. Energy policy analyst Rick Anderson with the Department of Natural Resources says it’s a capital-intensive business…and investors should not expect to get rich fast. He says wind farms are capital-intensive operations up front. Landowners leasing property could earn several thousand dolalrs a year per turbine. But that will depend on the amount of electricity each turbine generates. The Missouri group, Wind Capital, has a buyer for the power it will generate. The other two are still looking for buyers of their power. A spokesman for one of them says that’s the biggest challenge facing wind farm entrepreneurs.