Foundation Journal

Proposed and Existing Wind Projects in Kansas (link: PDF) An announcement by financial groups highlights a large investment in Wind Capital Group's Post Rock Wind Project in Kansas that will boost wind energy in the state. The company receiving the financing, Wind Capital Group, is the same business that built the Lost Creek Wind Farm in DeKalb County, Missouri, near my wife's family 80-acre farm. A search of news on the Post Rock project returned articles related to the financial aspects. A recent map shows a large number of large wind projects in Kansas that will not only generate safe, renewable energy, but also generate jobs.

A few people I have spoken with are cynical about the use of windmills, asking if I was willing to subsidize the costs for wind energy. I take it to mean that opposition to coal plants and support for wind farms is some conspiracy to disable free market enterprise. One person explained how coal plants have to operate at 80% capacity. He argued wind energy is unreliable because of a lack of storage capacity.  In rural Missouri just 2 miles or so north of my father-in-law's farm near Amity, Missouri, a new wind farm is on-line. It was amazing that it was built in a few months as documented in a recent story in Rural Missouri . With 100 American-made General Electric turbines and transformers made in a Jefferson City plant, the Lost Creek Wind Farm is a $340 million investment in a region still suffering from the farm crisis of the 1980s. Each turbine is capable of supplying 1.5 megawatts of power. Given the intermittent nature of wind power, it is expected to provide the energy ne...