Monday, July 1, 2013

Community Wind in the US

A recent search by me just turned up some new info about community wind in the US.  A few more links I dug up are included below.



...A cornerstone of the community wind idea is that profits will be reinvested into the community. Jake Susman, CEO of US developer OwnEnergy, currently the largest national player in community wind, says: ‘Our Pennsylvania project makes donations to the local fire house. We sponsor scholarships in Texas around our project there. We’re doing similar work in Oklahoma, and we’re now in upstate New York putting together a community group to let the community decide how to reinvest in the local area. In New York the people want more hiking trails; we also sponsor the local baseball team.’ Wind power for schools is a popular benefit, adds Susman.

Success stories
Five-year-old OwnEnergy has developed 27 community wind projects totalling more than 1 GW across 14 US states, according to Susman. The company’s strategy is to attend trade shows and ‘let the [customers] come to us’ – ensuring that local support is already in place – rather than choosing an ideal location in advance....


This is from Own Energy´s website "About", with some of the expected necessary ingredients, especially the stint at Goldman Sachs....! - 

Our Story

Wind Farm Turbines
OwnEnergy founder and community wind thought leader Jacob Susman “fell into” the power sector in 1999, after relocating to Spain with his wife. As a Project Manager for the AES Corporation, he developed conventional and renewable wind energy projects for three years—including one of the largest power plants in Spain and diligence of over 1,000 MW of wind farms—before the renewable “boom” took place in the U.S. 
Jacob recognized unlimited local and global potential energy in this centuries-old concept, which was returning to the forefront as a more eco-friendly alternative to conventional wind power. Unlike traditional energy resources, renewable wind power required heavy local development input—much of which was managed right in the local community. 
Renewable energy remained central to his thinking while completing an MBA at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he developed the concept for OwnEnergy as part of the Business Plan Competition. After leading his team to the finals, Jacob continued to build the business out of Wharton’s incubator. 


Here´s one original source for Denmark, their Wind Turbine Owners´ Association- http://www.dkvind.dk/html/eng/eng.html  (currently under repair)


and Germany´s wind owners site- http://www.wind-energie.de/en