If wind power works for St. Peter schools, Gustavus Adolphus College and the city of Mountain Lake, can it work for the city of Mankato?

That’s the question Mankato Councilman Mark Frost has been asking lately, prompted by higher energy prices, reliance on foreign sources of oil and carbon pollution.

He cautions that profitability is a must: “This isn’t one of those, ‘Boy, we’re gonna do it no matter what’ programs,” he said. “I’m just askin’ questions.”

But the success — though it has been decidedly mixed — of other public entities has piqued his interest.

During the past few months, he’s learned wind energy is more like a puzzle than a straightforward path.

Private entities are typically needed to put up money — and get a government tax credit in return. Most of the time an electricity company has to connect the turbines to the power grid and agree to buy the electricity.

And wind helps.

“It just depends on your circumstances and situations,” said Wendy Meyer, city administrator of Mountain Lake, which installed a turbine last year. “There are no blanket statements.”

Fitting pieces
Mountain Lake has an opportunity to decide its energy future more than most Minnesota towns.

That’s because it belongs to a municipal power cooperative that allows its member cities to decide where to get power from. In Mountain Lake, electricity is a city issue and is treated similarly to how drinking water and trash pickup are handled in Mankato, which does not belong to such a cooperative.

That means Mountain Lake had a guaranteed customer base when it decided to build a turbine. Mankato would likely have to craft a deal with a private power company.

Even so, Mountain Lake first discussed a wind project in January 2003, but it wasn’t completed until June 5, 2007.

Myriad issues — including acquiring a turbine, leasing from a nearby farmer’s land and studying wind strength in the area — taught Meyer a lesson: “Go slow and do your homework.”

Navigating the not-in-my-backyard reflex is another issue, as the New Ulm Public Utilities Commission is learning as it tries to build a 200-foot-tall tower to measure wind speed in rural Nicollet County.

Empty words?
Earlier this year, Mankato signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.