It must be the time of year to think about wind leases, because they've been coming up in the media a lot lately. Last Friday a piece was published in the Worthington (MN) Daily Globe about landowners who have been approached in SW Minnesota by a wind development company.

This April 2008 report from the New Rules Project discusses how simple changes to the federal production tax credit (PTC) and SEC registration process for cooperatives could significantly reduce barriers to community ownership of wind.

Download the report from the New Rules website here: http://www.newrules.org/de/ptc-wind-ownership.pdf

This is to announce the second in a series of webcasts sponsored by Wind Powering America with the purpose of reaching out to the Ag community. This webcast will take place on Thursday, May 8, 2008 at 9:00am PST, 10:00am MST, 11:00am CST and 12:00pm EST. The presentation will last approximately 1 hour and will be followed by a half hour available for questions and answers.

The topic of this webcast is “Wind Farming” and will be presented by David Kolsrud. David Kolsrud has over 13 years of experience in renewable energy and is well recognized nationwide. He has helped to develop, organize and fund over 20 renewable energy projects – primarily ethanol, biodiesel and wind projects. In 2006, he formed DAK Renewable Energy, which manages 11 LLCs with investments in multiple renewable projects. David’s thesis has been that community ownership of biofuels plants has had a significant positive benefit which can be repeated or enhanced using wind energy. He will talk about wind farming – some of the steps from conception to completion.

We just wrapped up the second day of Community Wind Energy 2008 in Albany, New York. The conference has been a great success, with people from 36 states, 4 other countries, and all parts of the community wind world in attendance.

Tomorrow we head to Jiminy Peak in Massachusetts to learn about their community wind project.

We're pleased to announce the addition of a new tool in the Community Wind Toolbox: a chapter all about Power Purchase Agreements.

Click here to go to the report.

This guide from the National Association of Counties was released in November, 2006. According to the NACO website, "this publication is designed to provide county commissioners, planners,
and other local county government officials with a practical overview
of information required to successfully implement commercial wind
energy projects in their county."

Click here to download the guide from the NACO website.

According to the AWEA website, "The Wind Energy Siting Handbook was developed by the AWEA Siting Committee to inform wind energy developers and other interested parties about environmental siting issues relevant to land-based commercial-scale wind energy project development in the United States.

The 2XtM (To Cross the Moon) snowkiting expedition is setting off across North Dakota today. The expedition is using their adventure to bring awareness of the state's amazing wind resource to the communities that stand to benefit from ND wind development.