Individual risk can be a scary prospect. But what if an entire community decided to take a leap together?

More than 300 farmer-investors in southwestern Minnesota are reaping the rewards of a risk they took to keep their community’s economy viable.

Minwind Energy LLC is a series of nine farmer-owned wind projects in Rock County, Minn., hatched from an idea to stimulate the community’s local economy by harnessing one of the area’s most available resources — wind.

In a recent telephone interview, Minwind Energy Chief Executive Officer Mark Willers said interest in commercial wind turbines developed in 1999 when a steering committee of local landowners considered building wind turbines to generate additional revenue for farmers and build the rural tax base.

However, landowners wanted to ensure the revenue generated from the turbines came home and not to an out-of-area private power company.

“These wind projects are going to get done — either by big corporations or by producers and community groups,” Minwind member Tom Arends told a publication of the U.S. Department of Agriculture last fall. “With community ownership, it is going to keep more money circulating locally and create more jobs.”

The project leaders formed a limited liability company, owned solely by 66 local farmer-investors who quickly embraced the Minwind plan. In 2002, the first two wind projects, Minwind I and II, were completed, each consisting of two 950-kilowatt turbines.

Today, Minwind generates more than 11 megawatts of power, which is sold to Alliant Energy and Xcel Energy. A one-megawatt turbine can produce enough energy to serve up to 300 homes for a year.

Read the complete story in the July 31 Independent Review print edition.