Missouri Ruralist

By Jerilyn Johnson

Rock Port claimed its stake as the nation’s first 100% wind-powered community with the flip of a switch on Friday, April 18. Mayor Jo Stevens and wind enthusiast Eric Chamberlain symbolically started electricity flowing from the town’s four wind turbines during its Green Switch Celebration held on the town’s main street.
The city can produce enough electricity to sustain itself from four Suzlon S-64 wind turbines that make up a project called the Loess Hills Wind Farm. Each turbine is located within the city limits of Rock Port and can produce 1.25 megawatts of electricity. The annual output from these towers is expected to be more than the city’s annual use of about 13 million kilowatt hours, with the excess production sold to Missouri Joint Municipal Utilities for use in other areas.

Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., sixth district, congratulated the town on its accomplishment, saying that Rock Port is “an example for the nation.” He presented civic leaders with a copy of his statement in the Congressional Record.

“Rock Port, where Lewis and Clark camped in 1804, the county seat of Atchison County-named after United States Senator David Atchison-and the home of the annual Atchison County Fair, has come a long way to be the undisputed leader of energy innovation by becoming the first community in our nation to be totally energy independent of foreign resources,” according to the statement. “Named for the soil that it is built on, Loess Hills Wind Farm is located on agricultural lands within the city limits of Rock Port. The four wind turbines that make up the Loess Hills Wind Farm will produce 16 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year. Rock Port will truly be the first community in America capable of meeting its entire annual electricity demands from wind power.”

Full story: http://missouriruralist.com/index.aspx?ascxid=fpStory&fpsid=33378&fpstid=2