Become a Wind Developer

Have you been out for drives out in the country and noticed the wind farms? They are getting more and more prevalent throughout the country. There is money to be made in harnessing the wind. You generate your own electricity and sell the rest to your local power company. Wind power is not new. Farmers in the 1870's used windmills to pump water to operate their grist mills. For the most part, wind developers are located in the Midwest and the West coast, but the industry is rapidly growing throughout the United States.

A farmer in Clear Lake, Iowa, by the name of Delbert Watson is a wind farmer. He generates power and grows corn on the same land. He sated in the Christian Science Monitor, "I didn't really expect them to come all the way out here in northern Iowa to start a wind farm. But this is really great. Now we grow corn on the ground and generate power in the air-all on the same piece of property."

Wind farming is great for farmers because the turbines take up very little space. They can plant their crops and raise livestock on the same land they have their turbines. On just an acre of land a farmer can have enough wind turbines to save a great deal of money on electric bills and receive a great income from the power company each year. A wind farmer can become his or her own power company and sell the electricity directly to the neighbors, or sell it directly to the power company.

Farmers can lease out their property to wind developers, or they can own their own turbines and generate their own power. One turbine could generate anywhere from 400 watts to 40 kilowatts, which can generate enough power for the farm with some to spare. Electricity from wind power is cheap to produce. Since 1980 the cost of producing power from the wind has dropped about 90 percent from when the market first opened up. In the near future, it may be cheaper to buy power from a wind developer than from the conventional power company.