Kansas Town Thrives After Wind Turbines Boost Local Economy

When wind turbines started spinning across Ford County, Kansas in 2006, something remarkable happened. The roads got fixed, schools were rebuilt, and for the first time in decades, dozens of new houses popped up across the landscape.

"We just added another crop," said Deloyce McKee, 76, whose family has farmed and ranched in Ford County since 1910. "We still grow wheat, we still have cattle. The wind towers do not take away the value of the ground."

The county's more than 300 turbines have transformed the local economy. New restaurants opened, including the Windmill Restaurant and the Spearville Turbine Bar & Grill. The area's two Best Western hotels are consistently booked with wind farm maintenance technicians.

The Spearville Wind farm alone produces enough electricity to power 200,000 homes. A second project, Pioneer Creek Wind, is expected to generate $36 million in landowner payments and $84 million in county tax revenue over its lifespan.

In Illinois, union leader Dane Simpson noticed an incredible pattern. Every time his 10,000 members built a wind farm, they'd return to the same community three to five years later to build a new school.

Simpson has now tracked almost $1 billion in school construction projects directly linked to wind energy tax revenue. In his hometown of El Paso, Illinois, two nearby wind farms funded a state-of-the-art grade school, a new junior high, and a gymnasium and football field for the high school.

"Suddenly they were hosting volleyball tournaments, basketball tournaments and wrestling tournaments," Simpson said. The new facilities brought economic activity and community pride that extended far beyond the classrooms.

The Ripple Effect

The economic benefits of wind and solar farms are spreading across rural America. These renewable energy projects provide the same kind of economic windfall that coal mines once brought to Appalachia and oil derricks brought to Texas.

Unsubsidized wind and solar power have been the cheapest forms of newly built energy for the past decade. Building a new wind or solar plant typically takes just 12 to 18 months, compared to five to seven years for natural gas plants.

"I don't care where the electrons come from, I just like cheap energy," said John Szoka, CEO of the Conservative Energy Network and former North Carolina state representative. With electricity demand expected to grow by 35 to 50 percent by 2040, communities are finding that wind and solar offer the fastest path to affordable power.

For rural counties, the math is simple: wind turbines mean better schools, fixed roads, new businesses, and economic opportunity that keeps young families from moving away.