This guide from the National Association of Counties was released in November, 2006. According to the NACO website, "this publication is designed to provide county commissioners, planners,
and other local county government officials with a practical overview
of information required to successfully implement commercial wind
energy projects in their county."
According to the AWEA website, "The Wind Energy Siting Handbook was developed by the AWEA Siting Committee to inform wind energy developers and other interested parties about environmental siting issues relevant to land-based commercial-scale wind energy project development in the United States.
"This handbook has been designed to provide technical information and useful tools based on the industry’s collective experience in siting wind energy projects and assessing potential impacts."
The Mid-Atlantic/Southeastern Regional Wind Energy Institute (RWEI) provides a means for state wind working groups in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia to better equip themselves with the knowledge and skills necessary to effectively communicate and promote wind power in their states.
The Climate and Energy Project (CEP) supports lively, informed conversations about our energy future. Our goal is to help halt the Midwest’s contributions to global warming and climate change. We support the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by increasing energy efficiency and developing renewable energies in a sustainable manner.
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 Kansas Rural Center, Inc. (KRC) is a non-profit organization that promotes the long-term health of the land and its people through research, education, and advocacy.
The KRC cultivates grassroots support for public policies that encourage family farming and stewardship of soil and water. The KRC is committed to economically viable, environmentally sound, and socially sustainable rural culture.
In this interview with the Climate Energy Project, Dan Nagengast of the Kansas Rural Center talks about community wind opportunities in Kansas.
This January 2008 policy brief from the New Rules Project of ILSR highlights how several European countries, and more recently the Canadian province of Ontario, have adopted a simple yet powerful strategy to expand renewable energy and benefit local economies. It is called a feed-in tariff: a mandated, long-term premium price for renewable energy paid by the local electric utility to energy producers. Evidence shows that a feed-in tariff achieves greater results at a lower cost than do other strategies like tax incentives or renewable electricity standards.
Click here to go to the New Rules Project website and download a copy of the report.
This report from Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory was released in September, 2007. The report, titled "Wind Project Financing Structures: A Review & Comparative Analysis," was authored by John Harper (Birch Tree Capital, LLC), Matt Karcher (Deacon Harbor Financial, L.P.), and Mark Bolinger (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), and was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Wind & Hydropower Technologies Program.
"Property Taxation of Wind Generation Assets," North American Windpower, May 2006, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 31-34. This article, written by Warren Ault, summarizes research he did for Windustry in 2005 into the actual and potential local economic benefits of wind power, focusing particularly on a survey of the varieties of approaches throughout the United States to the use of local property taxes. Click on the link below to download a PDF copy of the article.
