Matt Kangas  

Projects are becoming increasingly larger in size and scope. Each project creates a windfall for small rural communities in property taxes and landowner royalties. Millions of dollars are pumped into nearby small towns during construction. A handful of manufacturing plants of wind turbine components in the region are major employers and produce a steady stream of giant components that are trucked to wind farms throughout the region and beyond. There are also a number of spill-over effects for companies who provide services for wind developers and projects.

 Wind energy is probably one of the best forms of rural economic development that our state has ever seen,” said Jay Haley, a partner with Grand Forks, ND-based EAPC Architects Engineers, an architectural engineering firm that specializes in wind consulting. “It is revitalizing our rural areas. It has added a lot of jobs and economic activity in these small towns.”

A North Dakota State University study published last fall found that about six months worth of the initial construction on the Langdon Wind Energy Center in northeastern North Dakota alone had a statewide economic impact of $225 million. The Langdon wind farm, which has since been expanded through another phase of construction, was projected in the study to make annual payments of $1.4 million to various entities in the state, including $413,000 to landowners with easement agreements. Cavalier County where the wind farm is located was projected to receive $194,000 in increased property tax revenues with the Langdon school district receiving increased revenues of $271,000 annually, according to the study.

“I would expect other wind farms would have similar economic impacts,” said Larry Leistritz, the study’s lead author and a professor in NDSU’s Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics. “Since commercial-scale wind became a possibility a lot of people have looked at wind projects as desirable. There are some significant local benefits and not much in the way of local costs and impacts on local services. This is the type of thing I think many communities would find very attractive.”

A 200-megawatt wind farm could be expected to produce $600,000 in annual landowner revenue, create approximately 200 short-term construction jobs, 13 long-term operations and maintenance jobs and lead to 400 manufacturing jobs, according to national averages provided by the Washington, DC-based American Wind Energy Association trade group.

“A wind farm is a capital and infrastructure project,” said Peter Kennon, the project developer of the Tatanka Wind Farm that straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota border.

Kennon said some construction workers stayed in nearby Ellendale, ND, during the project, but the surrounding communities didn’t have enough rooms to accommodate all the workers, requiring some to stay as far as an hour away in Aberdeen, SD.

“There were a lot of times during construction when people would go back and forth and have a hard time finding a motel,” he said. “You would go to a hotel in Aberdeen and all the rooms would be full and there would be construction trucks in the parking lot. You would go out to restaurants and it would be the same thing.”

But a 2005 study by researchers at the University of Minnesota’s Department of Applied Economics in partnership with the St. Peter-MN-based Center for Rural Policy and Development found that while wind farms in the state were among the cheapest alternative energy sources to produce, at the time they also had lower revenues in relation to power generation than other alternative sources and created fewer jobs. With recent improvements in technology and larger wind farms creating economies of scale, wind is more economical than it was at the time of the study.

While the construction of wind farms and needed transmission lines to carry the power to market offers large short-term economic benefits during construction, wind doesn’t offer many long-term jobs. Wind farms generally only employ between 10 and 15 maintenance and operations staff after construction is complete while a coal-fired power plant may employ hundreds of workers to help run the plant.

Manufacturing growth

LM Glasfiber has a wind turbine manufacturing plant in Grand Forks, ND, and DMI Industries has a wind tower manufacturing plant in West Fargo. Knight & Carver (Howard) and Molded Fiber Glass Companies (Aberdeen) also have wind turbine blade manufacturing plants in South Dakota, while Tower Tech Systems is building a tower manufacturing facility just outside Sioux Falls. India-based Suzlon Corporation has a Pipestone, MN, facility that manufacturers turbine blades and nose cones. Wind turbine gear and industrial gear supplier Moventas has also announced plans to open an assembly plant and testing facility in Faribault, MN.

More growth could be on the way. Shane Goettle, commissioner of the North Dakota Department of Commerce, said the state is attempting to attract a plant to manufacture and assemble parts of the nacelle, which sits on top of the tower, houses the gearbox and generator and connects to the rotor and its turbine blades.

“There could be a huge growth in manufacturing,” said Randall Swisher, executive director of the American Wind Energy Association. “It’s starting to happen there. But there’s much, much more potential for growth. Each wind turbine has 8,000 components. It doesn’t make sense to ship that equipment too far.”

The LM Glasfiber plant in Grand Forks, ND, which opened in 1999, has been expanded and the plant’s employment grew from roughly 400 two years ago to its current total of about 900 workers. An analysis done by local economist Ralph Kingsbury found that the plant had an economic impact of more than $134 million on the community. “The company has made a significant economic impact on the regional economy,” said Keith Lund, vice president of the Grand Forks Region Economic Development Corporation.

DMI Industries announced plans last June to increase capacity at its West Fargo plant by 40 percent and hire additional workers to accommodate 2009 and 2010 orders. construction is expected to be complete by February. “That’s all new money for the economy,” said Brian Walters, president of the Greater Fargo-Moorhead Economic Development Corporation. “That’s one of the key reasons we focus on the primary sector. They create new wealth for the economy.”

Manufacturing plants generally receive financial incentives or help in building or financing the construction of their plants. But economic development officials say it is a worthwhile investment.

The Manufactured Fiber Glass Companies plant in Aberdeen began producing wind turbines last summer and currently has about 250 workers, but has plans to eventually employ 750. “It will be one of our major employers,” said Jim Barringer, executive vice president of the Aberdeen Development Corporation. “The biggest thing is the jobs. Our return on investment is jobs and lots of them.”

The Knight & Carver plant in Howard began manufacturing wind turbine blades in October 2007 has 60 employees, but could increase employment to about 100 by 2010. “Howard is a good location,” plant manager Brad Schulz said. “From Minnesota all the way down to Texas is very heavy into wind. We’re right in the middle of it.”

But wind manufacturing plants are susceptible to supply and demand swings. An anticipated slowdown in orders this year may lead to less production and jobs at plants in the region. Last month LM Glasfiber’s manager told a gathering of local business officials that the plant was preparing for slowed production this year that might lead to some short-term staffing reductions.