Jun 9, 2009
Bloomfield reaps benefits of alternative energy
BLOOMFIELD - Ask anybody how to get to the big wind farm, and they will direct you to 543rd Avenue, the first road past the cemetery. Residents know it well, because last year it was the road to good fortune for this struggling agricultural town in Knox County.
Hundreds of workers came here to work on Elkhorn Ridge - the largest wind farm in the state in terms of generation capacity - and upgrade the high-power lines to O'Neill and Gavins Point Dam.
With the national economy in free fall, Bloomfield reaped the benefits of a wind energy boom. It also experienced what other towns may see in the future as Nebraska continues to harness its strong prairie winds.
Companies spent thousands of dollars in this town of 1,200 people to make sure workers had everything they needed while they built the 27 massive turbines about five miles north of town.
The 4 Seasons Motel was full most of the time, and so was its parking lot next to Bazile Creek. Those who couldn't get a room there stayed in nearby Crofton, Creighton, Hartington and even Yankton, S.D., which is 30 miles away. RVs and trailers squatted in the city park like picnic tables.
"It was a very good summer," said Beth Harrold, owner of JB's, the town's busiest eatery. The Lincoln native hired extra help and could have used a traffic cop to handle the big rigs that squeezed into her gravel parking lot just off Nebraska 84. Harrold estimated that during the height of construction, she sold about $2,000 worth of diesel fuel a week, double the amount she usually sells.
Jack Dahlseid, manager of the 4 Seasons, said 2008 was the motel's best year in 20 years. He said the family-owned business made enough money to start a major remodeling project and hire two new housekeepers.
"Every motel in the county had people, including Cedar County," Dahlseid said. "These were good people. We had a good crew."
Bloomfield's windfall ended in March, when the $140 million Elkhorn Ridge project began producing electricity for Nebraska Public Power District and other partner utilities, including Lincoln Electric System.
Locals believe it's just a lull and anticipate more wind farms could be built in the area soon, as the nation looks to renewable energy to address global warming and other environmental problems.
The state of Nebraska, a latecomer to wind energy, has jumped on the bandwagon. An interim study on wind power is under way by the Legislature. Due in December, the policy study will look at adding 7,800 megawatts of wind energy to the state's power grid by 2030. Of that total amount, 5,000 megawatts would be exported to big cities in the east.
In Bloomfield, where the wind appears to blow constantly, wind turbine fever is at a pitch. There's talk on the streets of a "mega" wind farm between Bloomfield and Randolph that would generate about 600 megawatts, which would equal the energy output of a good-size coal plant.
Landowners in Cedar County are calling Bloomfield residents and officials for information because speculators are knocking on their doors wanting to lease their land and they don't know if they should take the deal or hold out for more money.
"I think there are developers in the area who are trying to acquire land options," said NPPD renewable energy manager Dave Rich. "There are literally dozens of areas where this is going on - most of them by out-state companies."
Rich said NPPD strongly encourages landowners to work with their local power district and get legal advice before they sign any agreement, which could be "30 to 40 years long."
Jim Huttmann has No. 1 and No. 2 on his farmland.
They are the first wind turbines built by Midwest Energy LLC of Chicago, the company that developed Elkhorn Ridge for Edison Mission Midwest Inc., the principal owner.
Huttmann, 66, is one of 10 landowners who signed 20-year leases. He won't say how much he gets for the two acres - only that it's "considerably" more than he would get if he were growing corn or soybeans on that same land.
He and his wife, Leslie, saw their first wind farm when they drove across Iowa a few years back. That's when he decided that if he ever got the opportunity he would put a wind turbine on his property. They were among the first to sign up when Midwest Wind Energy came calling.
"I was fascinated. They didn't take up much room. They didn't make much noise," Huttmann said, recalling his first glimpse of an Iowa wind farm.
With its 144-foot-long blades, each Vestas V90 generates three megawatts of power. The wind turbine, from base to blade tip, is 410 feet high, which is taller than the State Capitol. Together, the 27 turbines produce 81 megawatts, enough electricity to supply about 25,000 homes for a year.
Huttmann hopes the wind turbines will lessen the country's dependence on coal. Meanwhile, he said, the rent payments will help him pay off what he still owes on his land.
"I'm impressed by them. I don't know if I would be that impressed if there weren't some on my ground," Huttmann quipped as he described how much concrete and reinforcing iron went into the turbine's pad. "They're quite a machine!"
While some landowners are reluctant to talk about how much money they are getting in lease payments, Joan (pronounced Jo-ann) Case, isn't so shy: "Ten people get (share in) $325,000 per year."
That comes out to about $12,000 per year for each turbine. But the amount could be more because the rent payments are tied to the wholesale cost of electricity, according to Huttmann. When the price of power goes up, so do their payments.
Case, 75, praised the developer, Midwest Wind Energy, for putting a lot of money into the community and helping out farmers with expenses. She said the "rent" helped some farmers buy seed this spring.
Case, who has two wind turbines on her land, explained that a committee made up of local cattle rancher Jim Herzog, corn grower Bruce Lemke and her youngest son and engineer Richard Case of Omaha, assisted by local attorney Steve Archibald, worked on drafting the 50-page lease agreement.
As part of their research, committee members flew to Minneapolis to talk to experts about Community-Based Energy Development or C-BED projects such as Elkhorn Ridge, the first of its kind in Nebraska. Under the agreement, 33 percent is owned by Nebraska residents, including the 10 turbine host landowners.
"They definitely did everything they said they would do," Case said of the developers. "I think the whole community thinks it's great. We haven't had too many people that weren't in favor of it."
During construction, a worker was severely burned while working in the "hub" of a wind turbine. Even though he wasn't from the area, some Bloomfield residents sent him get well cards and still keep in touch.
"The guys from the wind farm came in and they just fit in this community," Harrold said. "There were some friendships made."
Case has high hopes for a second wind project called Crofton Hills, a 42-megawatt wind farm to be south of Crofton. She said many landowners have signed long-term lease agreements and are waiting for the $70 million project to be built.
NPPD has signed a 20-year agreement to buy the electricity from the project, which is scheduled for completion in 2010. The C-BED project is being built jointly by four Nebraska-based nonprofit groups: American Corn Growers Foundation, American Corn Growers Association, Nebraska Farmers Union and the Nebraska Farmers Union Foundation.
City Administrator Lyndsy Jenness said the wind turbines have put Bloomfield on the map - again. Once known for its egg-producing industry, the town is slowly gaining a reputation for green technology.
"It's good to be a part of something that is at least cutting-edge in this part of the country," Jenness said. "And it's good to be part of something that is new to Nebraska."
Bloomfield's slogan used to be "Northeast Nebraska's Busiest Community." Now it's "Northeast Nebraska's Busiest and Windiest Community."
Although most of the workers have left the area to build wind projects elsewhere, a lot of money will still be coming into the community.
As part of the C-BED agreement, Knox County could get more than $5.5 million in property taxes over the next five years from the Elkhorn Ridge project.
The biggest chunk of the property tax money, estimated at $2.4 million, will go the Bloomfield Community School District, according to Superintendent Bob Marks. The money should start rolling in late August.
The district's wish list includes: building or remodeling its junior-senior high school, buying two new buses and a new 15-passenger van, and providing each 7th- to 12th-grade student with a laptop computer.
The list could be the envy of any rural school district, but it's not all that rosy. Budget or "lid" limits placed on the state's school districts by the Legislature have "decreased our ability to grow our budget," Marks said.
Basically, that means the school district, which has seen property tax values go up in recent years, cannot spend the wind farm money as it would like, Marks said.
"If the district cannot meet the minimum general levy tax…it may be in jeopardy of being equalized in the eyes of the state, which means a loss of state aid," Marks said.
That amount could be between $300,000 and $400,000.
"It's a double-edge sword."
If the towering wind turbines north of Bloomfield are impressive during the day, you should see them at night.
Each of the 27 turbines has a blinking red light to warn low-flying aircraft of the potential hazard. The lights can be seen from miles away.
"Most of the people in the community like them," said landowner Case. "They like the looks of them. I think they are beautiful myself."
Mary Miller, who lives near the big wind turbines, said they don't bother her. She said she would have liked to have one on her land but it wasn't "high enough or windy enough."
Does she feel left out not being among the 10 landowners who get rent payments?
"I'm just glad it helped the economy around here," said Miller, a clerk at Hefner True Value hardware. "I think it has and will continually do that."
Her home is surrounded by three wind turbines. She said she hears the noise from the wind turbines sometimes but it doesn't bother her.
"It's no worse than a corn dryer in the fall," Miller said. "I love the lights. They (her friends) told us we live in the red light district."
The wind turbines have become a tourist attraction of sorts for the community. When family or friends come to visit, one of the first things they have to do is take a drive in the country to see the wind turbines.
Harrold said her cafe is very busy on Sundays because of the all the "sightseers from Yankton who bring their grandkids down because they have never seen a wind farm before."
Ron and Joan Brodersen drove from Hartington one night with their daughter, Anna, and son, Aaron, and family friend Eric Miller of Davenport to "show him (Miller) the sights."
Ron Brodersen also had an ulterior motive: His mother's land in Cedar County is in one of the areas designated as having good wind potential and he wanted to get a close-up view of a wind farm.
"I think it's pretty cool that they can be turning when there's hardly any wind up here," said Aaron Brodersen.
Said Joan Brodersen: "The red lights can be seen from Hartington."
That's about 26 miles away.
Asked if he would like to see a wind farm near his hometown, Ron Brodersen replied: "I think it would be a good thing if they came."
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