Wind Farms

Alternative energy is moving forward!  Several people from the Lake of the Ozarks Master Naturalist Chapter were interested in seeing the progress up close and personal on this beautiful autumn weekend.  It was quite impressive as just reading about it and seeing pictures cannot provide the power one can feel standing next to one of these giants!

King City in northwest Missouri has a couple claims to fame.  The area used to be the center of bluegrass seed harvesting, boasting to harvest more than the entire state of Kentucky.  It is also the home to the Bluegrass Ridge Wind Farm in Gentry County on 10,000 acres.  It is recognized as the first and largest of the wind farms in Missouri beginning it's operation in 2007.  Tours are allowed by appointment only with over 20 bus loads of people going through and viewing these huge giants each year.  To schedule a tour phone David Waltermath (660-535-4315) or email him at dwalterma@cbcfamily.com or call Everett Rhoad (660-535-4527) or Lois Reynolds (660-535-4593).
Tours that include the Tri-County Museum, Bluegrass Ridge Wind Farm, and Conception Abbey begin at 8:30 a.m. and end at 4:00 p.m. They are available May 1st through October 1st Monday through Saturday for guided and self-guided groups of 10 or more.  Group Tour Rates: $45.00 including lunch (lunch optional).  A good place to stay overnight would be in St. Joseph, Missouri as it is centrally located and has good facilities for motels and restaurants.  It is located on I-29.

Ours was a private tour this day and guided by a local man who calls himself The Janitor. He can usually be found at the Tri-County Alternative Energy Education and Visitors Center in King City next to the Tri-County Museum.  It is a 6,000 square foot facility that opened in January 2012 with a primary focus on the power of wind and electricity.  It is an educational science center with 13-14 hands-on learning projects such as an upright wind tunnel, miniature wind turbines, and a shadow wall.  The building itself creates a learning experience as well being equipped with solar panels for electricity and an underground cooling system using water.  The building is strategically located to overlook the wind farms on all sides from the upstairs observation windows.  A couple of the wind turbine blades are along the driveway so one can experience the enormity and feel the flexibility of the fiberglass construction.  There are also small tabs strategically placed to eliminate whistling sounds as the blades move.  Check out the photos I took on this music album:

These wind turbines were placed in this area due to it being one of the highest places in Gentry County and has the most sustainable winds in the northwest corner of Missouri.  The area is a beautiful open terrain which before settlement in the county, was nothing but prairie grasses.  The location was good due to the heavy overhead power lines that allow for easy access into the power grids.

The landscape is dotted with 27 massive wind turbines that together produce 2.1 megawatts of energy which is said to power about 30,000 homes in a year. Each turbine reaching 262 feet into the air and has three blades 140 feet long. The Bluegrass Ridge Wind Farm is only one of many Wind Farms in Missouri and Iowa.

Suzlon is the world's 5th largest and fastest growing integrated wind turbine manufacturer producing 350kW to 2.1MW capacity wind turbines.  It has a workforce of 12,000 people in the USA, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Greece, India, Italy, Nicaragua, Portugal, Spain, and Turkey/R&D in Germany and The Netherlands and the Global Management Headquarters in Amsterdam.

Hardin Hilltop Wind Farm in north-central Iowa, about 4 miles outside the town of Jefferson, was the company's first operational S88-2.1 MW wind power project and Iowa's first community-owned wind farm.  It began in late 2006 and was operational in May 2007.  There were seven wind turbines built.

The Suzlon turbine's footprint is fairly small allowing farmers to keep all of their land in production growing corn and soybeans right up to the base of machine.  Now the farmers have the latest crop blowing above it.  Missouri's wind energy leader is Associated Electric Cooperative Inc. located in Springfield, Missouri which is very close to my home.  The cooperative is buying all the power for 20 years from Missouri's first utility-scale wind farms.  This commitment, as well as the strong high-voltage transmission system owned by Associated Electric Cooperative and its members, brought wind power to Missouri.  The Bluegrass Ridge Wind Farm (2007) was the first commercial operation in Missouri with its 27 2.1MW turbines, 50 MW contracted on 10,000 acres in Gentry County.  Associated has since expanded commercial operations in the following areas in Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma:

Conception Wind Farm (2008) - 24 2.1-MW turbines, 50 MW contracted on 7,000 acres in Nodaway County, Missouri.
Cow Branch Wind Farm (2008) - 24 2.1-MW turbines, 50 MW contracted on 7,000 acres in Atchison County, Missouri.
Flat Ridge 2 Wind Farm (2012) - 194 1.6-MW turbines, 300 MW contracted on 66,000 acres in Barber, Harper,, Kingman, Sumner Counties in Kansas.
Lost Creek Wind Farm (2010) - 100 1.5-MW turbines, 150 MW contracted on 20,000 acres in DeKalb County, Missouri.
Osage Wind Farm (2015) - 94 1.6-MW turbines, 150 MW contracted on 8,500 acres in Osage County, Oklahoma.

Because wind is intermittent, Associated supplements it with fuel-based generation to ensure reliable electricity for members and includes hydropower (8%), coal (68%), and natural gas (12%).  Wind is now at 12% and increasing as more turbines are built.  Associated's wind power portfolio increased from 600 MW to 750 MW since 2007 to 2015 - about the amount of energy needed by an estimated 181,000 households.

Yes, wind energy is here and making a significant difference!  With 20-year leases in place, we will see what the future will bring and if they will continue to grow.  At least if it doesn't work out as well as something else yet determined, we will not have to worry about what to do with any radioactive materials such as nuclear power necessitates.  The land can be returned unharmed.

Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge and Conception Abbey

A refuge is a condition of being safe or sheltered from pursuit, danger, or trouble.  It can be something providing shelter or an institution providing safe accommodations.  Even though refuge is made available, it isn't always what it seems to be all the time.  But it is always good that it is there.

As a Master Naturalist with the Lake of the Ozarks Chapter in Missouri, I had the opportunity to travel to northeast Missouri to visit Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge near Mound City with a small group of naturalists and my husband came along.  Our initial interest was to observe the snow geese migration.  My husband and I had many good memories of watching the snow geese descending in spirals in the early years of our marriage during the 1970's.  We lived in western Iowa just north of the De Soto Bend National Wildlife Refuge which is part of the same system. We knew it was just the beginning of the migration period in mid-October but we were eager to see some impressive activities early on.  Because of unusual warm weather, it is likely the most impressive display to observe would be the migration period at the end of November.  So we made the best of it at this time and enjoyed a 3-mile hike along the Loess Hills Trail and a 10-mile drive around the protected wildlife area.  The 2-day event involved a 6-hr drive one way on Friday and coming home late on Saturday with an option to check out sites such as Excelsior Springs on the way.  We opted to have a nice long lunch and early check-in at our motel in St. Joseph instead.  We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express located on the road to our next day activity which was a tour of a wind farm.   That interesting event is the subject of my next blog article.  It was impressive!

We arrived at the Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge about 3:00 and checked out the information available at the main building.  The hike started behind the building and was quite vigorous!  The view at the top was grand and we could see most of the 10-mile area we were going to drive next.  We ended up driving it twice and left five minutes before the gates closed a half hour after sunset at 7:30 p.m.  I have put together a musical photo album below and found the time to be enjoyable even without the spiraling snow geese this time around.  Maybe we will get a chance to come back in a few weeks and be more impressed if one can still capture the awe from the first time such a site is observed.  This location is just off I-29 which is our route to visit family back in Iowa.  The time of year the geese typically use the refuges is during bad weather and we are not likely to be traveling those times unless we have too.  No time taken to stop but now maybe we will sometime.

December 9-11, 2016 Update:  We did have an unexpected trip to Iowa for a family funeral and took time on the way there and back to drive the auto-tour around Squaw Creek.  It was certainly more active with thousands of snow geese in V-formations swirling and spiraling in a great air show!  It was awesome and a good balance from the sadness of a funeral trip.  Here is a more current video of the snow geese in the water:

 Except for traveling to Iowa, I had not had much opportunity to know this area.  On this trip, I was reflecting on days gone by sparked by the memories of the snow geese so many years ago.  I saw the sign for Conception Junction, Missouri.  Memories came to mind from the weekend of September 15-17, 2000 when I stayed at nearby Conception Abbey with a large group of women.   There was an event put on at that time by the Missouri Department of Conservation as part of their Becoming an Outdoor Woman Program.   Conception Abbey is a Benedictine monastery.  The Basilica of the Immaculate Conception started in 1880 and dedicated in 1891.  It is the spiritual center of Conception Abbey and Conception Seminary College.  Basilica, a title meaning royal house, was bestowed on the church in 1941 by Pope Pius XII due to the intense spiritual life that exists within it and to the pilgrimages that take place within and around it.  It is one of 45 in the United States.

Amazing remodel done the year before I was there!

Becoming an Outdoor Woman (BOW) Group

Beti with a Belly Boat (Workshop)

It was a time for personal and spiritual growth.  It was the first year of my "empty nest" with my youngest child out of the home just a few months after her 2000 graduation.  It was a time for serious pursuit of my conservation interests.  It was a time to reconnect with my Catholic roots.  The day before on September 14, 2000, the Reverend Donald E. Powers passed away.  I remember being so sad.  He was a priest from the Jefferson City Diocese that I became close to in recent years at our St. Bernadette's Church in Hermitage.  Being at Conception Abbey at this time felt like a good refuge.  It was a refuge from my job and the world for a weekend.  It was wonderful!  The sessions I signed up to take included fly-tying, archery/bow hunting, belly boating, and fly-fishing.  Terry Tanner with the MDC was my main instructor.  There was a wonderful dinner on the last night with 12 different samplings of wild game elegantly served by the young seminary men.  In between events I could walk in the monastery and pray or just sit and listen to the chanting which was frequent.  It was truly a refuge and I could understand how attractive the life could be. I was full of joy by the end of the weekend!  I was sure I would come back to this beautiful place!

Then my memories went to the dark times in June 2002 when this place I thought of as a refuge became known as the Deception in Conception.  There was murder and misconduct at this Benedictine Abbey.  A shooter killed 2 monks then himself at Conception Abbey in June 2002 which prompted a decision  by leadership whether to disclose that they had knowledge of sexual misconduct by at least one member of its monastic community.  They misled authorities.

 They withheld information that could have shed light on the shooting...that credible allegations of sexual misconduct involving minor boys had been made before 1979, in 1981, and again in 1987.  This and many other similar issues in the American Catholic Church caused me to distance myself once again from the Church as an organization.  I never lost my faith as it has always been greater than anything on earth built by men.  I have always been naturally spiritual.  The difference is that now I withdrew back into my heart and my own personal relationship with God through His Son.  I became closer as my son joined the army as a medic in August 2001 and a month later the terrorist attacks began.  His time in Iraq changed me (as well as the world) but also brought me closer to God as I put all my trust in prayer and lit a lot of candles at my local Church over the next five years.  All good things come from God and my son came home.   Then as years went by, I developed trust in my intuition guided by my faith in God and my personal relationship with the Son.  
I found my true Refuge.