The opportunity for wind development is one of the “hot topics” on farmland owner’s minds right now. Many wind projects are currently being discussed and/or are in the beginning stages, but land owners have one significant problem, “How do we get the electricity to highly populated areas?”
 
The Green Power Express may be their answer.

On February 10 2009, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published an article on the Green Power Express, which would span roughly 3,000 miles of power lines from the Dakotas into Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. This would link wind power producing areas to energy consuming ones. ITC Holdings Corp of Novi, Michigan purposed the project and estimated it to cost between $10 billion and $12 billion. ITC is pushing for regulations to move along power line upgrading.
 
The upper Midwest plains are known for being very windy. Electric utilities and farmland owners have realized that wind power can be a very profitable renewable energy source, but the problem lies in how to transport the electricity.  The Green Power Express, which is expected to be completed by 2020, will provide a path for newly generated electricity to travel to heavily populated areas such as Milwaukee and Chicago and even open the door to the entire eastern seaboard.

Adding wind turbines to farmland will increase income and land value, with little or no change to farming practices. Farmers claim that wind turbines are hard to even hear when near them, “as loud as a modern refrigerator.”

The National Wind Technology Center estimates that wind turbines in southeastern Minnesota can generate roughly $2,000 - $4,000 annually per turbine through leasing your land to a wind developer. Turbines can even be placed on Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) land. 

Wind turbines are just one more reason why to invest in farmland because they generate another constant return on investment and are a green source of energy.

- Colvin