The core content of the Community Wind Toolbox comes from The Community Wind Handbook, developed by Windustry on behalf of the Rural Minnesota Energy Board and published December 15, 2006 by a partnership of the Agriculture Utilization Research Institute, the Southwest Initiative Foundation, The Minnesota Project, Clean Energy Resource Teams, and the Minnesota Corn Research and Promotion Council. The Community Wind Handbook offers high-quality practical information for farmers and rural landowners looking to develop commercial-scale wind projects.
The content of The Community Wind Handbook has been integrated with related content and interactive tools to create the Community Wind Toolbox, a robust on-line resource for community wind development that will be kept up-to-date with the rapidly changing wind energy landscape.
Acknowledgements
The Community Wind Handbook was a Clean Energy Resource Team (CERT) Project with funding from the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Minnesota Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources.
Development and ongoing enhancement of the Community Wind Toolbox is funded through a grant from the Archibald Bush Foundation. Major collaborators are Farmer’s Legal Action Group, Fredrikson & Byron P.A., eFormative Options LLC, and the Energy Foundation. We are fortunate and grateful for the community of professionals who worked with Windustry on this project, including Heather Rhoads-Weaver with her publishing skills, and Susan Reed with her layout design and artistic skills, as well as all of the individuals listed below that peer reviewed the various sections.
The Community Wind Toolbox also builds on and adapts material from several other excellent previous publications on community wind development:
- “Community Wind: An Oregon Guidebook” prepared for the Energy Trust of Oregon by Northwest Sustainable Energy for Economic Development.
- “Community Wind Financing” written by Charles Kubert and published by the Environmental Law & Policy Center.
- “A Comparative Analysis of Community Wind Power Development Models” written by Mark Bolinger, Ryan Wiser, Tom Wind, Dan Juhl, Robert Grace, and Peter West and published by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
- “Harvest the Wind: A Wind Energy Handbook for Illinois” prepared by Lisa Daniels, Sarah Johnson, and Wes Slaymaker at Windustry for the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs at Western Illinois University.
- “Community Resources for Wind Development: Wind Energy Toolkit” compiled by New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
Project Managers
Brian Antonich, Windustry
Lisa Daniels, Windustry
Sarah Johnson, Windustry
Heather Rhoads-Weaver, eFormative Options LLC
Contributors
Paul Blackburn, Windustry
Christina Brusven, Fredrikson & Byron, P.A.
Marin Byrne, Windustry
Rane Cortez, Windustry
Jordan Macknick, Windustry
Natalie Marker, Windustry
Cole McVey, Windustry
Alice Orrell, Alice Orrell Consulting
Jessica Schoemaker, Farmer’s Legal Action Group
Susan Savitt Schwartz, Editor
Dan Yarano, Fredrikson & Byron, P.A
Graphic Design
Susan Reed
Reviewers of the Community Wind Handbook included:
Annette Bair, Rural MN Energy Board
Warren Formo, MN Corn Research and Promotion Council
Mark Lindquist, The Minnesota Project
Dave Paskach, Southwest Initiative Foundation
Melissa Pawlisch, CERTs
Dennis Timmerman, AURI
Reviewers and project advisors on the Community Wind Toolbox included:
Lee Alnes, WindLogics
Leif Andersen, Suzlon
Don André, Northwest SEED
Mark Bolinger, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
John Bosche, Chinook Wind
Alan Cowan, Energy Trust of Oregon
Carel Dewinkel, Oregon Department of Energy
Chris Diesinger, Energy Foundation
Trudy Forsyth, Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Jennifer Grove, Northwest SEED
Jennifer Harvey, NYSERDA
Laurie Jodziewicz, American Wind Energy Association
David Kolsrud, Minwind
Mark Lindquist, Minnesota Project
Loren Prusowski, Sustainable Energy Developments
Ken Reiners, AgStar
Julia Sayre, G.K. Baum
Larry Sinesio, WindLogics
Wes Slaymaker, W.E.S. Engineering LLC
Adam Sokolski, Minnesota Department of Commerce
Brad Stevens, University of North Dakota Energy & Environmental Research Center
Paul White, Project Resource Corporation
Copyright © 2008 Windustry. All rights reserved.
Individuals are permitted to download and print the Community Wind Toolbox for personal use. No distribution or commercial use of the Community Wind Toolbox in any format is permitted.
