Editorial

Wind power needs to make long-term economic sense

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Farm groups are uniting behind wind power, and with good reason.

Although Nebraska has better wind power potential than all but five other states, we're number 22 when it comes to putting that wind to work.

To rural landowners, the wind actually is something to be farmed for income, leasing land for thousands of dollars a year -- while still using much of the land surrounding the wind turbines productively.

But there are drawbacks for Nebraska, which as a 100 percent public power state, has been ineligible for federal subsidies the way neighboring Iowa, No. 2 in wind power, is.

We've also got a shortage of distribution facilities, adding millions of dollars to the cost of connecting the wind turbines to the grid.

Now the Nebraska Farm Bureau and Nebaska Cattlemen are joining long-time booster Nebraska Farmers Union in promoting wind power in the state.

The Legislature is on board to a certain extent, passing some needed legislation last session and forming a task force to study the issue.

Proponents need to take a realistic view of wind energy's future, however, to avoid some of the pitfalls that have snared the ethanol industry.

Like ethanol, wind power depends on a subsidy and / or higher cost of competing energy to make economic sense. It doesn't, yet. Wind power costs about twice the cost of coal power for the Nebraska Public Power District, but may be more attractive than trying to add more nuclear power, with its regulatory and political barriers.

Wind power will need to be able to be produced in a cost-effective manner to make long-term economic sense, but anything that can be done to cut the red tape should be done as soon as possible.

NPPD and other utilities are right in saying it will take a mix of power sources -- wind, coal, nuclear, hydro and even oil -- to meet growing demand for power in the United States.

And the need for conservation, through more energy efficient building techniques and appliances, can have a dramatic effect on the need for generation capacity.


McCook drivers have an unexpected stake in the wind power debate, finding themselves competing for space on B Street with wind turbine blades being transported from the factories to the wind farms. It's good to see the trucks carrying two blades instead of one, cutting the traffic disruption in half, but we'd like to see something done to make it easier for the transports to make the 90-degree turns at the two Highway 83 intersections in town.

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