From Leasing to Wind Farms to Owning His Own

Cosmos, Minnesota (USA), sits along the South Fork of the Crow River. Grain is the lifeblood of the small city, having been founded in 1867 by a pair of wheat farmers.

With 1,500 acres of grain and seed in production, the Minnick Farm fits right in—but it also harvests something more contemporary. Brad Minnick has been leasing some of his land to large wind farms for some time. Seeing the viability of the resource on his own property, he wanted to benefit more directly with a wind turbine of his own.

The Minnick grain farm has recently been drying more of its crop, thus increasing the electrical load. Brad Minnick saw an opportunity to bring in wind energy at a lower and more stable cost.

To further help the economics, Minnesota offers generous tax benefits for wind energy projects: a Property Tax Exemption allows the farm to maintain the same level of property tax despite having increased their value with a wind turbine, and a Sales Tax Exemption applies to all materials used to manufacture, install, construct, repair or replace their wind-energy system. The Federal government also helped with a 26% investment tax credit and a subsidy from the USDA Rural Energy America Program.

Eocycle designed and installed a wind power system for the Minnick Farm in just under six months—including all permitting, grant applications and turnkey installation of our EOX S-16 (25 kW) wind turbine.

The project was completed on-time and on-budget. It is running smoothly and delivering energy savings as expected. The Minnick Farm will increase its supply of clean energy by more than 86,500 kWh each year.