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Wind Farmers
10/22/2002
Listen in RealAudio 
As the world looks to alternative resources to cut greenhouse gas emissions and subsequent
global warming wind power is playing a lead role. Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton and this is the Weather
Notebook's weekly segment on
global climate change. Today correspondent Curt Nickisch reports from a wind farm outside
Worthington, Minnesota.
When Kenneth Fenske grew up on a farm during the Great Depression every farmer had a
windmill.
KF: Well, the windmill basically ran the pump that filled the tank for the cattle and the
livestock.
Windmills went out style with rural electrification, now their coming back to generate
electricity. With evidence mounting that burning fossil fuels releases greenhouse gasses into
the air interest in wind power is growing. Farmers out here are flocking to informational
meetings that wind energy expert, Steve Scott holds throughout South Dakota.
SS: Agriculture continues to struggle and wind is and should be viewed as a cash crop for a
lot of these farmers in a state where drought is wreaking havoc and the wind is going to
continue to blow and with the lease arrangements, that serves as a good cash crop for these
ranchers.
Farmers can earn up to a dollar per megawatt for leasing plots of land for wind power
generation. Kenneth Fenske nets about eight grand per year from the four turbines on his
farm.
KF: It's not a get rich scheme, but it's good money and it's a good product. Clean, renewable,
can't expect any more.
So, the movement to use wind energy to cut greenhouse gas emissions and reduce global warming
is returning windmills, albeit modern ones, back to the farm. In Clear Lake, South Dakota,
this is Curt Nickisch.
Curt Nickisch normally reports from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The Weather Notebook is a
production of the Mount Washington Observatory. Our series on Global Climate Change is
supported by the New England Science Center Collaborative and the Roy A. Hunt Foun
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