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In This Issue
USDA Selects Windustry
REAP Grants and Loans
Wind Energy Center
Women of Wind Energy
On the Windustry Trail


Introduction to LWEA
Read Windustry's
Turbine Energy on a Stick







2009 Wind Energy Center


2009 Wind Energy Center


2009 Wind Energy Center


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Windustry E-Newsletter
October 2009
USDA Selects Windustry to Form Landowner Wind Energy Association Resource Center

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently announced 58 recipients selected to receive $8 million in grants to spur economic development in rural communities, including Windustry to form the Landowner Wind Energy Association Resource Center. The Center will provide technical assistance to four rural small businesses to analyze, organize, develop and expand rural wind energy projects. Windustry will work with businesses seeking to construct wind projects in Montana, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack "Rural businesses are the lifeblood of rural communities and their financial health is vital as we work to create jobs and expand entrepreneurship throughout the country," Vilsack said. "The funding we are announcing today will help lay the foundation for economic growth in many communities, consistent with the Obama Administration's vision of rebuilding and revitalizing rural America."

The funds are being provided through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Business Enterprise Grant (RBEG) program, which finances development of small and emerging rural business.

Read more and access the USDA announcement

Read Windustry's: Introduction to Introduction to Landowner Wind Energy Associations (LWEA)
Rural Energy for America Program
USDA Announces $13 Million in REAP Grants and Loans

USDA logo The U.S. Department of Agriculture is providing more than $13 million in loans and grants for 233 renewable energy projects in 38 states under the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP). The loan guarantees and grants will help agricultural producers and rural small businesses to conduct energy audits and feasibility studies for renewable energy systems, for renewable energy development assistance, and to purchase and install renewable energy systems and make energy efficiency improvements.

As an example of a project, Milford Wind Energy, LLC, Story City, Iowa, has been selected to receive a $1.8 million guaranteed loan and a $500,000 grant to build a 900 kilowatt wind turbine for energy generation. When complete, the turbine is expected to produce nearly 3.3 million kilowatts of electricity annually and generate more than $200,000 in electricity that will be sold to the local utility company. Construction of the turbine is expected to be completed next year.

Read more about the USDA REAP Funding Announcement
Wind Energy Center a Big Success
350,000 Visitors through The Eco Experience at MN State Fair

Wind Energy Center Windustry thanks all of the volunteers for their exceptional work at the Wind Energy Center in The Eco Experience at the 2009 Minnesota State Fair. Because of their passion for wind energy and willingness to donate time, the Wind Energy Center was a huge success! We are continually amazed by what a wealth of information our volunteers and visiting experts provide, along with our staff, to a public that is eager to learn about Community Wind. The overall quality and dedication of this year's volunteers was incredible! Here are some numbers for 2009:
  • This year was a record State Fair attendance of 1,790,497.
  • Over 350,000 visitors went through The Eco Experience.
  • The Wind Energy Center had 90 volunteers and over 425 hours of time donated.
  • Over 650 hours of Windustry staff hours were contributed to planning and staffing.
Check out these web galleries to view photographs from
The Eco Experience and the Wind Energy Center:

Windustry Celebrates Women of Wind Energy:  Launch of New Web Site

Women of Wind Energy logo Women of Wind Energy (WoWE) was founded in 2005 to ensure that women can play a full, productive role in the development of wind power. Lisa Daniels, executive director of Windustry, was one of the founding members, along with Trudy Forsyth and Mia Devine. Windustry has provided technical services and a web site section to WoWE for over four years. This year WoWE incorporated as an independent nonprofit, launched a search for their first fulltime executive director, created a new logo, and developed a web site.

Women of Wind EnergyWoWe is a nonprofit organization that promotes the engagement, professional development, and advancement of women in the wind industry through it's programs and services. Each year WoWE honors two outstanding women of wind with a Woman of the Year award and a Rising Star honoree. WoWE offers Rudd Mayer Memorial Fellowships to women students to attend the annual AWEA WINDPOWER conference. And, WoWE sponsors a mentoring program to help the next generation of industry leaders to emerge.

Windustry has been a proud supporter of WoWE over the years, and we invite your to visit their new web site for more information:

Big Green Conference
Green Growth for Business:
How and Why it Benefits the Bottom Line


Join local government and business leaders as they discuss proposed policy framework for regulating greenhouse gas emissionsBig Green Conference and the incentives for businesses to become more energy efficient and environmentally sustainable. 

October 15, 2009
8:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.
Mall of America
Bloomington, MN 55425

Incentives for Sustainable Development
Representative Jeremy Kalin, Minnesota House of Representatives
Craig Johnson, League of Minnesota Cities
Richard Graves, Secretary, U.S. Green Building Council
 
Greenhouse Gas and Permitting Regulation
Representative Kate Knuth, Minnesota House of Representatives
David Thornton, Assistant Commissioner, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
 
Renewable Energy Grants
Bill Glahn, Director of Minnesota Office of Energy Security
Janet Streff, Manager, Minnesota Office of Energy Security
Randy Hagen, Owner, Solar Skies Manufacturing, LLC
 
Green Strategies
Terry Hayden, Reluminate Inc.
Rachelle Schoessler Lynn, CID, ASID, LEED AP, Studio 2030
Arif Quraishi, Building Efficiency Division, Johnson Controls, Inc.
 
Lunch Presentation Featuring Polar Explorer and Environmental Activist, Will Steger
Introduction by Mayor Gene Winstead, City of Bloomington
A stunning visual account of his exploration and the effects of global warming on the polar ice caps
 
Implementation of Green Technology and Energy Efficient Practices
Jim Faulconbridge, Principal of Karges-Faulconbridge, Inc.
Kurt Hagen, Vice President of Development, Mall of America Company
Larry Lee, Director of Community Development, City of Bloomington
Mario Monesterio, Founder and Principal, Westwood Renewables
Nathan Franzen, General Manager, Westwood Renewables
Representatives from the U.S. Green Building Council's Green Schools Initiative
 
Mall of America Recycling Center Tour
Lydell Newby II, Manager of Environmental Services, Mall of America Company

For more information and to register visit:
biggreenconference.eventbrite.com
Windspiration

"If the winds of fortune are temporarily blowing against you, remember that you can harness them and make them carry you toward your definite purpose, through the use of your imagination."
-Napolean Hill

Napoleon Hill (October 26, 1883 - November 8, 1970) was an American author who was one of the earliest producers of the modern genre of personal-success literature. His most famous work, Think and Grow Rich, is one of the best-selling books of all time. Hill's works examined the power of personal beliefs, and the role they play in personal success. He successfully became the presidential advisor to Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933-36. "What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve," is one of Hill's hallmark expressions.[Wikipedia, some rights reserved]

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This wonderful image is a gift to Windustry from Avery, a very young man with a terrific imagination who is growing up on a Minnesota Elk Farm with a wind turbine generating energy for the farm and his home. Avery visited Windustry at the 2009 Wind Energy Center in The Eco Experience at the Minnesota State Fair and tested turbine blade designs in the Kids Activity Corral. From his artistic gift, we can tell that Avery is indeed harnessing his creativity toward visioning a sustainable planet for all creatures.

Visit Windustry for more Windspiration
  
On the Windustry Trail

Windustry staff and interns had twelve exciting days of fun and interaction with fairgoers at the 2009 Wind Energy Center in Minnesota, and we continued to work across the country promoting Community Wind to landowners, legislators, leaders, and other stakeholders working on renewable energy issues.

Lisa Daniels, Executive Director of Windustry, spoke at the Clean Energy Summit in Denver Colorado sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Farmer's Union.

At the National Women's Leadership Summit in New Orleans, Louisiana, Lisa Daniels joined over 400 women who hold positions of influence, led by Honorary Co-chairs U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu and U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe. Lisa was a lead panelist for a session on "What are the Key Energy and Environment Issues of the Day?"

We discussed "Leading the Way with Wind" on a panel at the American Renewable Energy Day conference in Aspen Colorado.

We presented on "Risks and Rewards: From Leasing Your Land to Owning a Project" at a Wind Energy Forum for landowners in Rice, Minnesota, sponsored by Benton County and the Southwest Initiative Foundation as part of their Rural Energy Development Initiative.

We met with members of the R9 Renewable Energy Task Force in Mankato, Minnesota to discuss opportunities for Community Wind.