AINSWORTH - When Joe McBride looks north from his house he sees something that wasn't there this spring - a line of wind turbines stretching across the green, rolling hills on the horizon.
"I think they're elegant," said McBride, who also owns the Ranch Land Western Store in Ainsworth.
McBride is no stranger to wind or wind power. The Sandhills has a rich history of settlers harnessing the wind to pump water from the ground and to produce electricity with wind chargers - small propeller-driven generators mounted on barns.
But something new has blown into this bucolic landscape, known to many as cattle country. Something modern. Something very hi-tech. Something that already has helped the economy of this Sandhills town which has struggled in the recent past with drought and depressed beef prices.
It's the state's largest wind energy facility and it's a beauty to behold.
Imagine driving over a hill and seeing the first of 36 wind turbines towering like a small army of three-armed prairie sentinels. To children, they may appear to be giant whirly-gigs planted on a lawn as far as the eye can see.
The Nebraska Public Power District broke ground for the wind energy farm in late February. So far, 27 of the 36 planned wind turbines have been fully erected, said construction manager John Befort. He and other NPPD officials gave the media a tour of the facility on a stormy Monday afternoon.
NPPD personnel are busy testing the wind turbines as soon as they are fully erected. Some of the turbines are even generating electricity, which is transmitted to a newly built substation and existing high-voltage power line. The Columbus-based utility says it expects to have the facility on-line by late August.
The wind energy farm will be able to generate 60 megawatts, enough to supply about 19,000 homes with electricity for a year.
Located about six miles south of Ainsworth on Nebraska 7, the wind energy farm sits on 11,000 acres of ranch land. NPPD and its consultants chose the site after eight years of collecting data. They say the site is one of the premier spots in the state for strong winds. On any given day, wind speeds average between 16.8 and 19.7 mph.
"Maybe the right word is 'crown jewel,' " said plant manager Dough Mollet, when asked how good the site is for wind.
NPPD doesn't plan to use all 11,000 acres. It leased that amount from four landowners because it wanted to find the best tower locations. The towers themselves only take up about a half-acre each. Cattle will graze beneath the rotating blades eventually. But there is plenty of room for future expansion.
Beth Boesch, a spokeswoman for the utility, said NPPD officials want to get more experience operating the wind farm before deciding on whether to add anymore wind towers. She said there also has to be interest shown by other utilities.
NPPD will receive 32 megawatts from the wind energy farm. Other utility partners in the Ainsworth Wind Energy Facility and their share: Omaha Public Power District, 10 megawatts; JEA of Jacksonville, Fla., 10 megawatts (in the form of a renewable energy credit); Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska, 7 megawatts; and Grand Island utilities,1 megawatt.
Ainsworth is an NPPD retail customer and will be getting some power from the new facility. The town's residents and officials say they have already benefitted greatly from the wind farm.
"They've purchased a lot of their supplies locally," Ainsworth Mayor Russ Moody said, in an interview outside his tire repair shop.
The mayor didn't have an exact amount, but, he said, the latest sales tax report from the state showed June receipts up four times higher than normal for that month.
Moody said the town usually takes in between $15,000 and $20,000 for June. He said the state figures may be wrong and he's asked them to check them again for accuracy.
"I can't believe it's that high," he added.
Moody said the wind farm has increased sales at local restaurants, motels, hardware and lumber stores and other businesses. It's also made housing hard to find, forcing people to look for rental property in the nearby towns of Long Pine, Johnstown and Bassett.
He said there were some concerns initially about the facility but there have been no major problems.
"We sure appreciate this being here - that's a given," Moody said. "Anytime a small town gets an economic boost you sure don't turn it down."
Todd Thornton, assistant manager at the William Krotter Co., a local lumber and hardware store, said he's provided some fencing and landscaping services for the wind farm. He and others say the facility could bring tourist dollars into the area.
Boesch said NPPD plans to have a viewing area near the highway and tours will be given after the project is finished. An official dedication is planned for sometime in October, which is Public Power Month.
The wind energy farm will not bring a lot of new jobs into the Ainsworth area. Once the project is done, NPPD plans to have only a handful of employees on site for routine maintenance. The site will be operated remotely from NPPD facilities at North Platte and Doniphan. But during the height of construction, there were as many as 87 workers, who brought a lot of dollars into town.
Said LiCinda Howell, a waitress at the Depot Cafe: "They're good tippers. They eat a lot of food. They really get hungry."
Reach Algis J. Laukaitis at 473-7243 or alaukaitis@journalstar.com.
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