by Kel Mohror

Created on: March 07, 2007   Last Updated: May 02, 2007

A money-making opportunity for a farmer, rancher, small business owner, school district or community group is to become a wind developer who produces power for reducing the cost of electricity or to sell to others. By owning a small or community wind turbine, farmers, ranchers and others have three revenue sources: Electrical sales in cents per kw/h [every hour the wind blows faster than 17 mph], selling Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) at 1 3 cents per kw/h, and the recently renewed Production tax credits at 1.9 cents per kw/h.

Electric companies increasingly buy their power from independent power producers rather than generating it themselves. They are also increasingly offering "green" or environmentally friendly power products and may be looking for suppliers of wind power. In addition, a number of states and the federal government provide incentives for wind power development. Dozens, and even hundreds of independent producers will find ready markets for their excess electricity.

Wind power is presently one of the fastest growing energy sources in the world. In the last 10 years, costs for wind-generated electricity have dropped from 30 per kilowatt-hour to less than 5 per kilowatt-hour with the development of more efficient and reliable generating units. Search terms such as "small wind turbine" and "community wind turbine" will find hundreds of relevant documents and web sites that describe how these costs make the turbines a viable practice in 2007. On the U.S. Department of Energy Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy you will find colorful maps of estimated wind energy density classes for the nation's windiest states- North Dakota is ranked first, Texas is second, Kansas is third, and South Dakota is fourth- along with other links to the means to harvest wind power.

Green credits/tags (renewable energy credits- RECs) are created when the environmental benefits of renewable energy are separated from the electricity that is created by wind or other renewable energy resource. The electricity is added to the power grid, and the environmental benefits are sold separately. Green credits/tags represent the pollutants - carbon dioxide, mercury, and other toxic emissions - that are not created by traditional energy resources, such as coal, nuclear or natural gas.

The demand for RECs comes from voluntary markets driven by green consumers (such as Starbucks Coffee and Johnson & Johnson) or compliance markets driven by pollution regulation obligations. As you might

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