Wind and local economics

Wind power provides jobs, tax payments to counties and local communities, including school boards, and lease payments to landowners, usually farmers. Manufacturing parts for wind turbines employs Wisconsin workers. Wind power can increase the property value of windy land. Critics of wind power claim that it can reduce property values for neighboring residential land, although there is no evidence to prove or disprove this.

Wind and state economics

Wind power can help keep energy dollars in Wisconsin. Since Wisconsin produces no coal, oil, natural gas, or uranium we must import over $6 billion worth of these fuels every year. We also import about 15 percent of the electricity we consume. By keeping the money in the state, we produce more economic activity in Wisconsin. Keeping money in the state means more economic activity here and more jobs here. Economists call this a "multiplier effect."

Much of the cost of a wind farm is in the wind turbines themselves, and most of the turbines in Wisconsin so far have been made in Denmark. If we made more of the turbines here, we could capture even more jobs. In addition, wind power development can provide an important boost to rural communities in the form of tax payments.

Jobs—now and in the future

Marathon Electric and Milwaukee Drive are Wisconsin-based companies that make generators for turbine companies like Enron Wind Corporation and Kenetech Corporation. Wisconsin's existing wind farms in Kewaunee County employed more than 30 people for construction, operations, and management.

A 1994 study by the Wisconsin Energy Bureau looked at displacing 750 megawatts of coal and natural gas power plants with renewable resources—especially wood and wind. This would produce enough power for over 300,000 homes, while creating 2,600 new jobs, $1.6 billion in higher disposable income and a $3.1 billion increase in gross regional product than conventional power plant investments.

Wind power is good business for farmers, landowners, and businesses. (CONTINUE)