Watching the wind

Published 10:33 am Thursday, December 11, 2008

He was at the Rural Energy Development Initiative forum Dec. 6 at Hayfield, there to learn about commercial scale wind energy, wind rights and development options, land leases and agreements.

And to ask questions.

Jim Hartson asks questions wherever he goes.

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He was also at the 2008 Truth in Taxation hearing held by the Mower County Board of Commissioners Dec. 4 to ask questions, and also to offer opinions and observations.

And, to crack jokes. Hartson’s sense of humor sometimes is forgotten by the ultra-serious demeanor he exhibits at public meetings.

He is, however, the silver-haired devil’s advocate on many issues and a silver-tongued devil of a spokesman for wind energy.

So much so that the Waltham farmer believes wind energy can reduce the spiraling costs of county government.

Hartson and his wife, Jane, live on a farm in the countryside near Waltham.

A personal computer is his best technological friend. Hartson scours the Internet for information about the most natural renewable energy source: wind.

He tracks his own wind energy project and others in Mower County. Hartson’s is the first and still only farmer-owned cooperative wind energy project in the southeast Minnesota region.

He tracks wind energy projects’ progress through a maze of approval hoops and hurdles on the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator Web site, which monitors the bulk power transmission system.

He follows closely the emergence of Minnesota’s Community Based Energy Development, which encourages the growth of locally-owned wind energy projects such as his own.

Critics may say he’s “windy,” but there’s no disputing: Hartson knows wind energy and its potential impact in many areas.

At the 2007 TNT hearing, Hartson suggested to the county commissioners they use wind energy tax revenues collected in Mower County to “reduce taxes.”

A year later, that’s what the county officials and staff announced they were doing at the 2008 TNT hearing: $878,000 worth will be used to reduce the proposed 2009 property tax levy, which, in turn, will amount to a near 4 percent reduction in taxes.

Hartson complimented the county officials for their action, which, he said, was based on the county’s multiple wind energy projects working at 40 percent capacity.

Then, Hartson went a step further and suggested the county delay its proposed $36 million jail and justice center project for a year or, maybe, two, to allow more wind energy projects to come on-line, which, in turn, would mean more tax revenues for the county.

Under the current formula for distribution of the taxes, the county gets 80 percent while townships and school districts share the rest.

Hartson’s plan: Use the bulk or all of the wind energy tax revenues to pay for the costs of the bonds sold to finance the jail and justice center project.

“By the end of the year,” Hartson said, “we should have enough wind turbines up and running to generate 450 megawatts of electricity a year.”

At the state-mandated formula — 0.0012 cents per kilowatt hour — the anticipated wind energy tax revenues could — Hartson said “should” — be more than $1 million per year operating at only 40 percent capacity.

Using the wind to reduce taxes is not, pardon the pun, a windy idea of Hartson. “I know the numbers well,” he said.

But Hartson exhibited pragmatism when discussing the prospect of a literal windfall of revenue.

“Where are the checks and balances?” he said. “Where is the oversight for the distribution of the wind tax revenues?”

Hartson’s research has revealed, he said, “Mower County is in a real sweet spot for wind energy development” even on a smaller and more personal scale.

According to Hartson, a Minnesota Public Utilities Commission study showed the viability of development only 40 megawatt projects.

The MPUC’s dispersed generation study suggested Mower County is, in fact, a sweet spot for such projects.

With 450 mw online by the end of the year, Hartson predicted the number will increase to 800 mw a year from now.

“When that happens, the grid capacity could be a holdup,” he qualified his prediction. “‘Is there enough capacity on the electrical grid to take all the electrify being generated by wind projects?’ is the question.”

Hartson’s persistence paid off, one must surmise, in helping convince the county commissioners wind energy tax revenues can be a blessing in the sky, during tough economic times.

The Mower County commissioners will reconvene the TNT hearing at 11 a.m. Tuesday.

A possible tax break for all of the county is blowing in the wind, according to Hartson.