United Wind has joined a programme aiming to help organic crop farms in the US Midwest reduce energy bills by hosting its small wind turbines.
Organic food supplier Clif Bar & Company is leading the effort, by initially investing $500,000 from its investment fund in the $10m programme to provide up to 80 farms with long-term energy cost savings.
The Clif Ag Fund’s wind energy programme is a partnership between United Wind, Clif Bar, and two of its major ingredient suppliers, Grain Millers and Puris.
Farmers in the initiative will lease a small wind turbine from United Wind that will provide them with their electricity needs at a fixed monthly rate for 20 to 30 years.
There are no upfront fees or maintenance costs for the turbines.
The programme will focus on farms in windy Midwestern states such as Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.
Beneficiaries will include organic oat and pea farmers, many of whom face high and steadily rising energy costs.
Other large investors are slated to invest the remaining $9.5m in the wind programme.
Farming has thin margins, according to Clif Bar senior director of agricultural policy and programmes Matthew Dillon.
He said: “The goal of the Clif Ag Fund is to invest in projects that will help our farmers be more economically resilient in producing organic crops.
“That benefits farmers, their communities and Clif Bar.”