Community Wind Toolbox Chapter 1: Introduction to Community Wind Development
Wind energy development is expanding rapidly, creating many opportunities for communities to participate in wind development. Windy acreage, once cursed for losing top soil, is now seen as a potential goldmine. Many farmers and landowners are clamoring to get in on the action. Wind energy offers many financial, environmental, and social benefits to the communities and individuals who choose to get involved with its development.
Read more:
Community Energy Guidebook
2006: Ontario Sustainable Energy AssociationThis 2007 publication from the Oklahoma Wind Power Initiative can be downloaded here.
This handbook was prepared by Windustry for the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs at Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois and published January 1, 2004. The purpose of this handbook is to inform the reader about wind as a resource for generating electricity, with emphasis on Illinois as a potential host for small-scale and large-scale projects.
This resource from the Kansas Corporation Commission is an Xcel spreadsheet that steps through the ins and outs of community wind in Kansas, including extensive discussion of areas with good potential for community wind development.
The NWCC maintains a collection of publications related to wildlife and wind.
The November/December 2007 issue of Rural Cooperatives, a magazine published by USDA Rural Development, features wind energy.
This report by Teresa Welsh of The Iowa Policy Project was published April 2005. This report highlights three analyses that compare the economic development benefits of small-scale, locally owned generation to other larger capacity ownership structures and discusses the barriers and changes necessary to aid the development of small scale, locally owned wind generation, specifically in Iowa.
The Ontario First Nation Guide to Wind Power Development
2005: SGA Energy Ltd., Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development and, Gale Force Energy Ltd.Wind Energy Guidebook for County Commissioners
2006: Prepared for the U.S. DOE Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy & National Association of Counties (NACO)
Wind Energy Manual
2005: Iowa Energy Center.Wind Energy Toolkit
2005: New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, Power Naturally ProgramIncludes a legal guidebook for landowners, a section on lease agreements, and a sample annotated lease agreement.
This publication was developed for Winrock International Brasil by Global Energy Concepts, and covers many aspects of wind project development, including a survey or lease terms and a model lease agreement. Click here to download the file from the Winrock website.
Best Practices
Caution
Links to more information
Information that will affect your project’s bottom line
Example