When it comes to wind, I like to think I’m ahead of my time.
In 2004, I was a founding member of the energy cooperative Baca Green Energy. Since then, my wife, Kay Lynn, and I have been working on making wind an anchor of our southeast Colorado’s farming portfolio. We’ve got a really great area for wind, and it’s worth it. I’ve installed two wind towers on my farm—one watering a 200-acre circle and another for a 500-acre circle—and the excess power they generate can always be sold back to the coop.
Now, why does that matter? I think it’s because of how big a role energy plays on Colorado farms and ranches. Between ranching and farming, we spend more than $500 million annually to fuel our utilities. Renewables like wind can help keep us in the black.
That’s not only important for farmers, but for the whole state. Renewable energy resources we use are becoming more and more consequential in places like Walsh. They keep our communities’ economies strong with new jobs and boost the local tax base. Because of renewables, we can also help keep our air clean and the soil on our farms more robust and productive.
After a really good conversation with the fellow running a booth I met at a farm show last year, I got interested in upgrading my wind towers with some new, more efficient turbines. The $79,500 cost for installing the new turbines would be paid for with a grant through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
Bergey Windpower, the company that was selling the turbines, helped us with the Rural Energy for America Program grant, and we were able to keep using the towers we already had while Bergey added the new turbines over about four months. These new turbines will replace about 100 kilowatt hours on our farm, saving us $7,000 on our electricity bills every year. Since I’m a member of Southeast Colorado Power Association that supplies my electricity, I can sell that surplus electricity back to it and make money even in off months.
The new investments on my farm the REAP grant made happen came from the Inflation Reduction Act passed by Congress and supported and signed by the Biden administration in 2022. From my experience, I think there’s lots that could be improved on administering a big federal spending package like the IRA: for example, making grants like REAP more accessible to many more eligible farmers and ranchers. I think REAP could also improve its outreach to other farmers, who might not belong to a coop or already have a commitment to wind or solar, like I do. There could be more direct public spending, infrastructure and job creation, especially in rural communities like ours.
But I believe that REAP, and the IRA as a whole, show elected officials in Washington, D.C. are coming to understand something we’ve known all along in places like Walsh—and that’s what our farm communities contribute.
They can be a lab for new, more efficient technologies that improve our quality of life. They can play a role in new kinds of economic development that keep our farm towns whole. They can be a way to deliver clean, reliable energy to the local and state grid. When we’re backed up by programs like REAP and legislation like the IRA, we see the potential impact farmers and ranchers can make and really lead the way forward for Colorado.
Fred Hefley and his wife, Kay Lynn, are partners in H2O Farms, located near Walsh, Colorado, in Baca County, that raises dryland wheat and grain sorghum and irrigated corn.
