Not Quite the Whole Story

In today's New York Times, columnist Dan Barry writes lovingly of the new wind farm just south of Ainsworth, Nebraska:

Driving south out of the agricultural town of Ainsworth, you can’t miss its newest crop: wind turbines, three dozen of them, with steel stalks 230 feet high and petal-like blades 131 feet long, sprouting improbably from the sand hills of north-central Nebraska, beside ruminating cattle.

This is one serious puff piece, complete with quotations from Nebraska Public Power employees professing their love of wind power and the oh-so-obvious reasons behind wind power in Nebraska.  Unfortunately, as I pointed out last week, Nebraska is shamefully far behind in wind power production, and public power is a big part of the reason why.  I hope Dan Barry takes the time to get the other side of the story next time.

Here's what you need to know about the state of Nebraska's wind industry.

Installed megawatts of wind power (on the ground, generating electricity today):

1. Texas: 5,317

2. California: 2,484

3. Minnesota: 1,299

4. Iowa: 1,295

5. Washington: 1,195

21. Nebraska: 73

How pitiful is that?  And we have more wind energy potential than Minnesota or Iowa.  I'm glad we have a wind farm south of Ainsworth, but what is truly newsworthy is how little wind power Nebraska actually has.