by High Country Energy Development Team at National Wind

Summer is always an exciting time for everybody, buzzing with many activities including vacations and outdoor festivities. It’s much the same for High Country Energy, as our field staff expand into a second footprint area. Termed our North Footprint, we are working to secure land in Dodge and Olmsted Counties ’ Mantorville, Milton, Concord, Wasioja, New Haven and Kalmar townships. This footprint is targeted to support 150+ megawatts of wind energy generation across an expanse of over 20,000 acres. We expect this wind farm to be operational by 2013.

If you are located in this new development area, you have probably been contacted by our dedicated field staff, JJ Jones, Dan Hemmingsen, Skip DeLong or Missy Kelley (please see a related article for an introduction to Skip and JJ), to discuss what this opportunity could mean for you. We would like to extend a warm welcome to any new project members and prospective landowners considering participating in High Country Energy.

We understand that participating in a wind energy project is not a decision to take lightly and we encourage landowners to seek as much information as will make them comfortable. Here are some unique points that make participation in our project different from non-community based projects in Minnesota.

• More Financial Benefits. Not only do we provide competitive land lease payments, we also provide landowners the opportunity to have an ownership stake in High Country Energy’s profits. Non-community based developers provide lease payments, but do not offer this ownership component. High Country Energy offers the best of both worlds. We are a C-BED (Community Based Energy Development) project by the state of Minnesota’s requisites, which means the majority of our project’s proceeds will go to local landowners and Minnesota state residents.

• Landowner Representation. Another key differentiating component of High Country Energy is that the local community is the primary owner, not the developer. Rural landowners and farmers have the ability to influence the development process in a way that collectively meets their needs. A local elected advisory board, consisting of individuals participating in the project, represents the community’s interests. The board has monthly meetings with the development team.

• Experience and Expertise of National Wind. National Wind is an experienced developer of wind projects and has created a successful model for utility-scale community wind development. National Wind’s 12 other locally-owned wind development projects are similar in structure to High Country Energy. National Wind’s model is centered around you, the landowner, the local investor, and the community member. National Wind strives to make sure we are developing a project that will generate local economic and environmental benefits. At the end of the day, this is really what community wind is about.

Our goal is to provide you with enough information to afford you a clear picture of High Country’s progress. We again would like to welcome you to High Country Energy and we look forward to working with you to develop this project.

Check out our website at www.highcountryenergy.com for more information or stop by our local Kasson office at 122 West Main Street to meet with our field staff. You can also call 507-634-6993 to arrange an appointment to learn more. We look forward to meeting you!

Read more stories from the Summer 2009 newsletter