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High Country Energy, LLC Announces the Nation's Largest Community-Owned Wind Project

Posted on: Thursday, 6 September 2007, 12:07 CDT

MINNEAPOLIS, Sept. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- National Wind, LLC announces its partnership with the community to form and capitalize High Country Energy, LLC. When completed, it will be the largest community-owned (C-BED) wind energy project in Minnesota and in the country. National Wind will manage the development and construction of High Country Energy's 300 megawatt (MW) wind farm located in Minnesota's eastern Dodge and western Olmsted counties. High Country Energy, LLC was formed by National Wind in partnership with seven members of the community that invested in the project, including, Barry Rogne, Bryant Hokeness, Dan Hoffman, Eric Lee, Ken Binkley, Kevin Green and Larry Larson. These individuals have the foresight to understand what this project means to their community.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070906/AQTH119LOGO)

"We are grateful to the community for their strong local support of this project and to the local landowners who have decided to partner with us," said Pat Pelstring, co-founder and chairperson of National Wind. "This is a ground-breaking community-owned project because it compares in size to some of the nation's largest utility projects."

This allows the project to take advantage of economies of scale not normally available to community-owned projects. It is owned by the local community with significant financial returns for the local community."

Minnesota has created incentives to promote community-based energy developments through the New Generation Energy Act of 2007. National Wind supports this effort with a unique landowner-based development model designed for larger scale projects. The High Country Energy project is expected to qualify for C-BED status, meaning it is owned by Minnesota residents and that 51 percent of the profits are returned to the Minnesota community members over the life of the project. The New Generation Energy Act of 2007 has required utilities to commit to allocating space on the grid for 1200MW of C-BED projects by 2025. The wind farm will also be utilized to help meet Minnesota's mandate for 25 percent of its electricity from renewable resources by 2025.

"I'm proud to partner with National Wind because they are truly committed to local ownership of wind projects," said Barry Rogne, chairman of the High Country Energy, LLC, members Advisory Board. "They are an experienced wind energy developer and offer the guidance we need to make this project an overall success. I have directly participated in the development process and look forward to the positive impact the project will have on our local economy."

About National Wind, LLC:

National Wind, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is a leader in the development and management of utility scale (50 MW or more) community wind energy projects. National Wind and its development subsidiary, "Wind Energy Developers, LLC," have participated in developing 12 wind energy projects and currently have over 1,000 MW in development throughout Minnesota, Iowa, North and South Dakota.

Please visit http://www.highcountryenergy.com/ for more information on this project.

Contact Information: Erin Edholm Director of Communications eedholm@nationalwind.us 952-221-5075 (cell) http://www.nationalwind.com/

Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070906/AQTH119LOGOAP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com

National Wind, LLC

CONTACT: Erin Edholm, Director of Communications of National Wind, LLC,cell, +1-952-221-5075, eedholm@nationalwind.us

Web site: http://www.nationalwind.com/http://www.highcountryenergy.com/

Source: PRNewswire

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