Wind power with staying power

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.startribune.com/local/south/16415401.html

Wind power with staying power

A Prior Lake wind turbine manufacturer traces its lineage back to the windmills used by farmers in the 1930s. And business has been picking up speed.

By SARAH LEMAGIE, Star Tribune

March 11, 2008

If wind energy seems like a fad that sprang up around the time Al Gore won the Nobel Prize, think again.

Back in the days when "global warming" was a fancy way of saying "summer" -- before power lines snaked out to many rural farms -- Minnesota farmers were generating electricity with windmills. And many of today's wind turbines aren't really that different.

In Prior Lake, manufacturer Wind Turbine Industries makes small wind turbines that bear the last name of M.L. Jacobs, who began selling an early model with his brother, Joseph, around the time of the Great Depression.

Today, Jacobs is "probably the oldest name in the business" said Michael Noble, executive director of the Minnesota advocacy group Fresh Energy.

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