A Chicago-based private wind developer is working with area government officials and landowners to establish a large wind project in Banner County. Midwest Wind Energy, which develops wind farms throughout the Midwest, including the only private project in Nebraska near Bloomfield, is planning to invest at least $60 million into the project. The project would involve 600-800 turbines and the leasing of sixty thousand to one hundred thousand acres.

Midwest Executive Vice President Mike Donahue says the area in Banner County provides a great "steady" wind energy resource.

Donahue says the key is to have a project large enough that will attract the building of a transmission grid that could move the energy to other parts of the country. Donahue says a local group, to be known as the Banner County Wind Energy Association, is working as the conduit between Midwest Wind Energy and landowners in getting the leases and right of way agreements to provide the land for the project.

Donahue admits state legislation is needed that would allow Midwest to depreciate the cost of equipment over a longer period of time. He also says a law that provides NPPD eminent domain on power production in the Nebraska needs to be tweaked to encourage wind power in the state.

Donahue says the 2000 megawatt project is probably seven to ten years from being built , but he believes it could provide energy for over two million people, create thousands of jobs during construction and provide 100 permanent jobs once it is built.

Jim Young of rural Kimball , President of the Banner Wind Energy Association, says another firm, Terragen Energy, is also working with landowners on a smaller 80 megawatt project in the same general area.