I had a unique opportunity to visit the Maple Ridge Wind Farm last week. The project, a joint venture between Horizon Wind Energy in Houston and PPM Energy (part of the Iberdrola Renewables family of companies), is one of the largest wind farms in the US, with 195 wind turbines. Located about 75 miles northeast of Syracuse, the project is hosted by around 100 landowners, many of whom are family farmers.

I toured the project with Bill Moore of PPM, Patrick Doyle of Horizon, and local landowner Bill Burke, who entertained a visitor producing a segment on the project for the Sundance Channel.  This area is truly a beautiful part of the world, with barns, silos, livestock, ravines and rolling hills combining to create stunning scenery, even when the wind whips right through your numerous layers designed to keep out the cold.

Learning the lay of the land from that group provided insightful history to a project that traces its origin to Bill Moore knocking on doors in 1999. He came to the area asking whether people might be interested in hosting state-of-the-art wind turbines on their dairy farms. Today, after a multi-year construction process that created around 400 jobs brought around $35 million into the local economy, this project funnels a total of approximately $6 million annually to the local municipalities, county and school districts. It provides enough clean electricity to supply 160,000 average New York homes each year.

The landowners continue to use their land for pastures, timberland, farming, and leisure activities. It is their early embrace of this project, years before global warming had seized the headlines, which cemented its future success. What grew out of the fields of Lewis County is now a striking example of clean, homegrown energy.

My sincere thanks go out to Bill, Patrick and Bill, who generously contributed their time on a cold, blustery day. Of course, we like blustery.