A small town in the mid-western state of Missouri has become the first in the United States to be completely powered by wind.
Photo: Wind turbines. Credit: Alternative Energies/Flickr
Rock Port, a town of just 1,300 residents, has made use of the fact that the region is one of the most suitable for harvesting the wind by building four turbines that entirely power the town's homes and businesses.
The turbines are part of a wider range of 75 turbines located across three counties in the area.
"That's something to be very proud of, especially in a rural area like this -- that we're doing our part for the environment," enthused Jim Crawford, a natural resource engineer at the University of Missouri Extension in Columbia via a LiveScience report.
Crawford went on to say the turbines not only produce clean energy, but are also of great economic benefit to the counties who reap the reward from an expected $1.1 million USD in real estate tax paid annually by the wind energy companies.
"We're farming the wind, which is something that we have up here," Crawford said. "The payback on a per-acre basis is generally quite good when compared to a lot of other crops, and it's as simple as getting a cup of coffee and watching the blades spin."
"This is a unique situation because in rural areas it is quite uncommon to have this increase in taxation revenues," said Jerry Baker, an MU Extension community development specialist.
Landowners also benefit from the turbines by being able to lease part of their property to the turbines, which has the added potential of attracting tourists over the expected twenty-year lifespan attributed to each of the towering wind machines.
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