The Community Development Approach
Red Rock Wind Energy and its project manager, National Wind, follow a different approach to wind energy development than most other wind projects in the state of Iowa.
The main distinction is that local community members have opportunities to become owners in the development company, Red Rock Wind Energy. Red Rock Wind Energy is owned by Iowa residents and is organized as a local limited liability company, under the laws of Iowa.
Below delineates in detail, a more integral look at the benefits of this development approach over non-community-based wind energy projects.
- Familiar business structure. Because Red Rock Wind Energy is structured as a limited liability company, in which local landowners can exchange for wind rights and/or invest capital to receive a share in ownership of the company. Farmers are familiar with this model, and landowners are more apt to get involved in a wind energy project that follows a model similar to traditional agri-business structures.
- Community voice. We create an open forum for community insight, communication, and participation in every project LLC. We incorporate landowner representation formally through a local advisory board and ensure that landowners and investors have enduring avenues to positively influence the development process. These opportunities for involvement engender broad local support.
- Benefits to local economies. Compared to developer-owned projects, community-based developments distribute more benefits to local economies. Local ownership enriches rural economies and increases local support.
- Economies of scale. Because National Wind, local landowners, and other community members pool their financial resources to build Red Rock Wind Energy, this project development can achieve economies of scale unavailable to smaller community projects. The large scale allows our community wind project to be economically competitive with traditional utility-scale projects.
- Ease of permitting. Red Rock Wind Energy, because it is community–owned, has low rates of local opposition. Local governments are more likely to permit community projects that make the most of the broad community support and potential returns to the area. A good outlook on permitting also tends to stimulate interest from utilities.
- Appeal to utilities. Utility-scale community wind projects provide adequate electrical output to interest a utility, participate in the large-scale market and compete with non-community based projects. For smaller wind projects, finding a utility to purchase its electricity and successfully negotiating a power purchase agreement can be significant challenges.
