A Midwest Energy News story about a wind farm going up in Indiana gives a clear picture of how wind power creates jobs, and what’s at stake as Congress delays acting to extend the federal wind energy Production Tax Credit (PTC).

The story, by Dan Ferber, looks at the Wildcat wind project near Elwood, Ind.  Mike Behringer of White Construction, an Indiana-based company that is handling the installation of the wind turbines, describes the work involved.  Says the article, “Access roads have to be built into farm fields; foundations have to be excavated. To hold up a single turbine, it takes 400 cubic yards of concrete and 36 tons of rebar—meaning the entire wind farm will use enough concrete to pour a 3-foot-wide, 4-inch-thick sidewalk from central Indiana to St. Louis. Each of the five sections of each 300-foot tower is transported to the site on a semi, then stacked in place with the sort of crane used to build skyscrapers.

“The nacelle—a fiberglass-encased box with more than 70 tons of equipment inside, including the electricity-generating components of the turbine—is placed atop the tower. Then each of the 160-foot blades must be mounted on top of the tower.

“All this work means jobs, and lots of them, Behringer said. One hundred seventy people, including iron workers, crane operators, laborers, and linemen are all employed building the first phase of the Wildcat wind farm, which will have the capacity to produce 200 MW of [electricity].”

The article goes on to note that 14 Indiana companies build wind farms or wind turbine components, that more firms have the capability to enter the wind industry, and that jobs will likely be lost to overseas if the PTC is not extended.  And it refers to a recent economic impact analysis that found that a typical wind farm supports nearly 1,100 jobs.