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Article: Wind for Sale.(the growing business of wind power production)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
- Article from:
- Reason
- Article date:
- December 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Reason Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In the 1850s Chief Seattle suggested that the wind could never be sold. But Seattle never witnessed the new economy. Wind rights are now for sale and they're going fast. Brokers are offering cash to farmers who are willing to plant a crop of wind turbines, and farmers are discovering that investing in wind power can be more profitable than raising traditional crops. In Minnesota, for example, a typical annual harvest nets $40 an acre; a single wind turbine, which takes up about one-eighth of an acre, generates about $2,000 in a year.
Turning wind into power is nothing new. Europeans have been using windmills since the 1500s. Windmills were also used throughout the ...