Xcel invests in wind turbines for Minn. landowners

Published 10:59 am Tuesday, August 6, 2013

MELROSE, Minn. — Xcel Energy is giving a financial boost to a first-of-its-kind Minnesota project that aims to install small wind turbines on private land to produce energy for farms, businesses and rural homes.

The St. Cloud Times reports Tuesday that Xcel has recommended a $1.1 million grant from its Renewable Development Fund to Gone 2 Green, a Cold Spring wind turbine supplier. The money would help cover the costs of 120-foot-high wind turbines for landowners with five acres or more in Stearns, Benton and Meeker counties.

That’s smaller than the 400-foot-high turbines that occupy massive wind farms in southern Minnesota and Iowa. Gone 2 Green president and founder Charles Grell says he’s purposely reaching back to an older model of generating energy where individual users generated the power they needed.

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