The topic of wind energy in Mower County won't blow away. Nor should it, according to one Mower County official.

Ray Tucker, 2nd District Mower County Commissioner, reported to the Mower County Board Tuesday on the topic.

Tucker represents the eastern two-thirds of Mower County. The district includes 12 townships and eight municipalities from Adams east to the Fillmore County line.

Tucker is a champion of renewable energy and sits on the Southern Minnesota Energy Task Force as Mower County's representative.

At Tuesday's county board meeting, Tucker told the commissioners, the county's burgeoning interest in wind energy could be hampered by new legislation that favors a wind energy project near Slayton.

A giant 345-megawatt transmission line stretches north to south in Mower County from Dexter to Adams.

Also in the county is the new Great River Energy transmission plant near Sargeant.

With anemometers measuring the presence and sustained force of winds in the Marshall, Clayton and Lodi townships area, both the transmission line and GRE's transmission plant could become conduits for electrical power generated by wind energy in Mower County.

Presently, two firms are testing the possibility of wind energy and have options on farmers' land in the townships if the tests prove to verify the cost-effectiveness of wind energy.

"We don't want to close them down," Tucker said of the wind energy projects in Mower County. "We don't want to throw any cold water on the companies who are trying to proceed in Mower County."

Tucker and other members of the Southern Minnesota Regional Energy Task Force are concerned about a pending order by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission regarding the Buffalo Ridge transmission case.

Tucker is afraid it could have a "far-reaching negative effect" on the Mower County wind energy efforts.

Minnesota PUC utility regulators approved a new power line just three weeks ago that will carry wind energy from the Buffalo Ridge area to the Twin Cities metro area beginning in 2006.

Xcel Energy must provide 825 megawatts of wind energy, but must purchase up to 60 megawatts of the total from wind developments owned by local farmers in the Slayton area in southwest Minnesota.

Tucker, following the lead of the Southern Minnesota Regional Energy Task Force, does not want the Minnesota PUC to show any favoritism to the Buffalo Ridge project while ignoring other wind energy developments.

The latter are projects being examined in Mower County at lower wind speed sites with existing available transmission capacity (the Northern States transmission line and GRE).

Also championing the cause to make wind energy developments everywhere in the state successful is the American Wind Energy Association.

According to Tucker, "Everybody -- the township, school district, local communities and the county -- can benefit from property tax revenues paid by the companies as well as the royalty agreements local landowners will receive.

"It's unfair to exclude Mower County and other counties from benefiting this way, while the Prairie Island and the Buffalo Ridge projects do," Tucker said.

Tucker wants the Mower County Board of Commissioners to consider going on the record and writing the Minnesota PUC with its thoughts on allowing wind energy development anywhere in Minnesota.

The commissioners took the request under advisement.

Lee Bonorden can be contacted at 434-2232 or by e-mail at :mailto:lee.bonorden@austindailyherald.com