Churning out savings

The $5,000 grant created a Community Enhancement, or Gold Star, project to explore a wind power generation project. Investors purchased shares in a limited liability company to erect the county’s first wind turbine.

Thirteen years and 12 wind turbines later, the project is continuing to provide electric power to the area. The Adair County wind project is unique. Originally formed by 13 private investors, the group now has around 200 investors either from the area or with ties to the area. Shareholders reap 8% to 20% return on investment each year, depending on the turbine.

Adair County farmer Randy Caviness, who heads the project, credits the turbine's success to a healthy farm economy in many of the investment years combined with a progressive attitude in the Adair County area.

Energy users from Stuart and Anita to Clearfield benefit from the turbines.

Each turbine produces 6 million to 7 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of power per year. Power is sold directly to Farmer’s Electric Cooperative, City of Greenfield, City of Fontanelle and the Central Iowa Power Cooperative (CIPCO). Excess power is put back up on the CIPCO grid. 

According to CIPCO financial reports that track monthly savings for Farmer’s Electric, the turbines have saved Farmer’s Electric nearly $4.2 million in accumulated monthly savings from October 2010 to March 2021. In addition, the project pays substation fees to the rural power cooperative.

Caviness says the community as a whole is saving round $1 million every five months on their electric power costs. The City of Greenfield receives nearly one-third of its power from the turbines; on some days, it is the primary source. 

A number of incentive programs aided the project. 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) provided two, $500,000 grants and guaranteed loans for the first two turbines. “USDA Rural Development supported the idea of community-owned renewable energy with the notion this could be a model going forward and that wind resources could be utilized in a local community supplying some of its own electric needs,” says Caviness.

Those tax credits began phasing out in 2017 and, without them, future farmer-led wind projects will be much tougher to build.

Caviness says they have no plans for more turbines under the current model.

“We’ve been able to use these incentives to provide a successful model for locally produced affordable renewable energy,” says Caviness. “With the production tax credits, we were able to provide a good return and let the turbine pay for itself with all the income available for debt service and expenses. With no tax credit, it’s hard to justify.”

But the benefits of the existing turbines continue.

For farmers like Caviness, wind power is one more commodity on the farm production list, adding to their bottom line and making profitable use of their land.