Wind energy holds promise for school funding
A second wind turbine has been built on school property in Spirit Lakes, Iowa. Expected annual revenue: $125,000.
Projects such as this one in Iowa have Utah State University professors Edwin R. Stafford and Cathy L. Hartman considering the fruitful possibilities of developing wind energy in Utah.
“This is a big economic opportunity. We can make money out of thin air,” said Stafford, professor of marketing.
According to an article set to run in the St. George Spectrum written by Stafford, Hartman and Christine Watson of the Utah Energy Office, the Spirit Lakes project started in 1993 as an experiment to see if wind power really could help fund public education. The first wind turbine built on school property generated more than enough energy to power the school, saving the school district $20,000 in annual energy costs.
“It has become so successful that Iowa has set up tax incentives for schools that will build wind turbines on their property,” Stafford said.
If Iowa seems a little too far from home, then consider Milford High School in central Utah which has already done anemometer testing to verify that Milford has good wind resources. According to the article, if further tests prove that wind resources are sufficient for development, Milford High may build a wind turbine on or near school property.
Stafford and Hartman said wind-powered energy is an excellent way to harness free natural resources in a harmless way to help fund education in Utah. Stafford said this is an important topic for Utahns, considering that Utah ranks at the “bottom of the barrel” when it comes to money spent on education.
“Utah has way too many kids and not enough tax money going in,” Stafford said.
According to the article, the situation will only get worse. A projected 180,000 additional children are expected to enter Utah’s already overcrowded public schools by 2015. Stafford and Hartman, who are working with the Utah Energy Office on a buzz marketing campaign for wind-power development, suggest that revenues from wind power should be used to fund additional growth in Utah schools.
They said that wind power can help fund public schools in three ways. First, increased property tax revenues on wind parks built on private land can help pay for education. When power companies build wind parks on land owned by private citizens, farmers for example, the power companies pay the property taxes. According to the article, one small wind park in Oregon generates $243,000 in local taxes each year. Besides that, Stafford said that energy companies that build on private land pay farmers between $30,000 and $60,000 in royalties for wind parks built on the farmer’s land. Not only do these royalties boost the economy in rural areas, but they are also subject to income tax, which can go to help pay for education.
Second, any royalties made from wind parks built on Utah’s school and institutional trust lands would go into the permanent endowment fund for Utah schools, which basically means that any royalties generated from wind parks built on these public lands would have to be used for education.
Third, wind turbines built on school property could generate power for schools, thus lowering energy costs. Any excess energy could be sold back to the utility grid. In fact, Hartman said that “Utah has a law which requires utilities to buy back excess.”
Some students at USU are trying to get a dollar of each student’s tuition earmarked for wind development. This could be helpful considering USU’s $6-million fuel and power deficit discussed by President Kermit L. Hall in his State of the University address last week.
Besides providing additional funding for education, the development of wind power can help the Utah economy in general.
“There would clearly be a ripple-effect economically,” Stafford said, describing how a wind-power industry in Utah could provide construction and utility jobs, new opportunities for steel, concrete, roads, turbine components, etc.
In addition to all this, Stafford said having wind power could improve the air quality in Utah, an issue on everybody’s mind since Logan was labeled the most air-polluted city in the country last week.
The first step to all of this would be for Utah to provide tax incentives for wind developers, similar to those provided in Wyoming and Texas. Stafford said there was a bill in the Utah Legislature last year providing such incentives but it was defeated. A similar bill was passed in Wyoming last year, and as a result Florida Power and Light built a $143-million wind facility in Evanston, just 10 miles from the Utah border. Ironically, the power generated in this facility is bought by PacifiCorp, the company which provides power for Utah.
Hartman noted the irony of Utah having to buy energy from a power plant in Evanston.
“We have got the wind here; it doesn’t stop at the border,” she said.
Stafford said, “It’s ironic how these policies in other states have basically chased business out of Utah.”
Florida Power and Light is still looking for more wind facility sites throughout the Mountain West. Stafford said he hopes Utah can pass the tax incentives soon to attract wind developers in Utah.
More information on wind development in Utah can be obtained at http://www.wind.utah.gov.
-sjeppesen@cc.usu.edu