Public News Service | June 30, Mark Richardson
Wind energy generated about 25% of Minnesota’s electricity in 2023, with much of that power coming from turbines placed on farmland.
Bill Gillen, a farmer and six-year participant in the Freeborn Wind Project in southeastern Minnesota and northern Iowa, said wind power has been a welcome addition.
“It allows us farmers to continue to farm the land as well as generate the revenue off of the wind project itself,” Gillen explained. “That’s what makes it very compatible.”
According to the Clean Grid Alliance, Minnesota ranks seventh among the 50 states with more than 3,800 megawatts of wind energy. The state has more than 100 wind projects, with more in the planning stages.
Gillen did not disclose how much income he makes from leasing part of his acreage but acknowledged it has helped him buy two new tractors, a combine and a corn planter.
When the Freeborn project was proposed about 20 years ago, many farmers were skeptical. Some said it would use too much farmland and cut into crop yields. But over time, wind turbines have taken up only 2% to 5% of participating landowners’ property.
Gillen stressed turbine leases generate income even when crops are not growing.
“With the turbine placement, the road, the payment on that road, the payment on that turbine placement, there is nothing we could grow on that would make the amount of revenue that does,” he emphasized.
Gillen argued wind power makes sense for Minnesota farmers and the power grid.
“When we built this project here, there’s a lot of people who thought the world was going to come to an end,” he recounted. “People said, ‘If they build this thing here, we’re going to move.’ They’re still here. It was not the monster that a lot of people like to make it out to be. I don’t know anybody that wishes they wouldn’t have done it.”
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