KING CITY, MO.

A few of the 27 wind turbines at The Bluegrass Ridge wind farm on Thursday near King City, Mo.
(Huy R. Mach /P-D)

The "Big Pump" was always this town's main roadside attraction, perhaps rivaling only Branson's giant ball of twine or Independence's hair museum.

Built in 1937 by a gas station owner named Rufus Limpp, the 25-foot tall, fire-truck-red replica of an electric gasoline pump once beckoned motorists to "Buy Gas Now." It now sits in front of the King City museum.

From the wooden steps of the museum, tourists now can get a good view of the town's newest attraction: 27 wind turbines rising about 300 feet from the ground, their blades, about the length of a football field, pushed into motion by a steady breeze.

The Bluegrass Ridge farm is the first commercial wind project to open in Missouri. The wind farm could produce about 57 megawatt hours of energy — enough electricity to power 34,000 homes.

Missouri joins about 32 other states, including Illinois, in developing wind energy, a source of renewable energy that doesn't produce air pollution that contributes to global warming. A recent Supreme Court ruling found that carbon dioxide is a pollutant and can be regulated. Consequently, utilities across the nation are expected to step up efforts to buy wind energy and other forms of renewable energy to offset pollution created by coal-fired power plants.

In King City, wind power is also funneling tourists and tax dollars to the farming community in northwest Missouri where the economy has historically ebbed and flowed with the cost of corn and cattle.

The company behind the King City wind farm is St. Louis-based Wind Capital Group, which plans to open two more wind farms in neighboring Atchison and Nodaway counties early next year. Wind Capital is targeting that area because it's the only place in the state that has enough wind to run the 25-ton turbines.

The 9,000-acre Bluegrass Ridge farm is slated to pay more than $500,000 in property taxes next year to Gentry County, the largest share of which will go to the King City school district.

The town is also benefitting from an influx of curious visitors who are stopping to gawk at the gargantuan turbines rising out of cornfields and cow pastures.

Last week, a dedication ceremony drew more than 500 people — a little less than half of King City's population. There are even plans to build a visitors center not far from the Big Pump, a symbol of the town's energy past that is being replaced with one that represents a new future in energy.

"It's just breathed new life into this town," said John McKinnon, a local farmer. "It used to be people didn't know where King City was on the map, but now they associate it with the wind farm."

GREAT POTENTIAL

The first large-scale wind farms were built in northern California after the energy crisis of the 1970s. Since then, hundreds more have been constructed in the nation's windiest states including California, Iowa and Texas.

Wind power is generated in the form of electricity by converting the rotation of the blades into electrical current by a generator that sits on top of the turbine tower.

Federal and state studies have shown that northwest Missouri is the only part of the state that has enough wind to support a commercial development.

So last year, Tom Carnahan, the president of Wind Capital and son of the late Gov. Mel Carnahan, began building wind farms in the windswept area, north of St. Joseph.

Similar projects in other states have been opposed because some neighbors think the turbines are ugly, noisy and will kill birds.

But Carnahan says northwest Missouri residents have overwhelmingly supported the wind projects and have become cheerleaders for renewable energy.

He's banking on the growing popularity of renewable energy in a state that has no laws requiring the use of solar, hydropower or wind energy.

Still, he believes the benefits of wind power outweigh its costs.

It's clean. It reduces dependency on foreign oil. And it helps rural economies, Carnahan says.

"Another part that may be more difficult to quantify is just the enthusiasm that exists for this project. You just can't put a dollar figure on it, but people are really proud of the farm," said Carnahan.

Over the next 20 years in King City, the wind power generated by Bluegrass Ridge will be purchased by the Associated Electric Co-op Inc., of Kansas City and sold to customers in Missouri, Iowa and Oklahoma.

The co-op will also buy energy from Wind Capital's two other wind farms, already under construction in the northwest corner of Missouri.

Wind energy, however, is not cheap and will account for only about 1 percent of the total amount of electricity the co-op sells to its customers.

And while co-op customers can expects to see their rates increase, company officials say those hikes are mostly due to a growing customer base, rising gas costs and the fact they're being forced to install pollution-reducing equipment at their coal-fired power plants.

"If you have a system like ours that's combined, when the wind blows, I'll turn down the coal plant, or gas plant. That way I'll save fuel and that means there are less emissions going up in the air," said Jim Jura, Associated's general manager.

The number of wind customers in Missouri will increase in coming months when AmerenUE begins purchasing wind energy. As part of its case before the Missouri Public Service Commission to raise rates, the utility agreed to develop wind power by 2010.

Bill Barbieri, who oversees the utility's renewable energy section, said Ameren had talked with Wind Capital Group, but he would not say which company would get the contract.

A WINDFALL

In the 1920s, King City's economic prosperity was rooted in the bluegrass seeds growing throughout the countryside.

But row crops became more lucrative than bluegrass and the community started to rely more on corn . Never able to attract any good-paying manufacturing jobs, the city's economy has been stagnant for years. In fact, the local school district had to slash about 10 percent of its $4 million budget a few years ago.

Now, with the wind farm taxes slated for collection next year, school officials hope to lure some of the teachers that left due to the budget cuts and add computers.

"In St. Louis, $200,000 is just a drop in the bucket. But here, it really makes a difference," said Kendall Ebersold, the school superintendent.

King City's revival is part of a well-documented trend among rural communities where wind projects are built. The National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, Colo., commissioned a study in 2005 that concluded that wind installations produce a large direct impact on rural communities, particularly those historically anchored by farming.

Brenda Spiking, owner of the Aberdeen Steak House, says customers began arriving in droves last year when the construction started on the Bluegrass Ridge farm.

"I'm not sure we would have been able to open had it not been for the wind farm," she said. "It was really good timing."

During construction, the influx of workers was evident: there was a line of trucks waiting to park at the town's general store, the local hardware store couldn't keep merchandise on the shelves and tables were full at restaurants.

Now, the construction workers and contractors are being replaced with visitors.

The St. Joseph Visitors and Convention Bureau officials say they are getting a steady stream of inquiries about the King City wind farm from tour operators that cater to older adults and school groups.

"It's a great location for rural-based tourism — a bus tour on its way to Branson or snowbirds who are on their way to Texas for the winter but don't feel like driving straight through," said Marci Bennett, director of the St. Joseph Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Many landowners who have agreed to lease their land to Wind Capital say they often find their driveways blocked by inquisitive spectators.

Still, they say lease payments of $3,000 to $5,000 per turbine help offset those minor headaches.

Mike and Bonnie Waltemath have nine turbines on land they or their relatives own. While the lease payments certainly aren't sustaining their farm, every little bit helps.

"My dad always said, '$1,000 isn't much when you have it in the bank, but it's a heck of a lot more when you owe it,'" Mike said.

Source:
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/missouristatenews/story/B...