MONTICELLO, Mo. — The Missouri Wind Resources Steering Committee wants to add value to one of the state's renewable resources, wind, by using the example set by another.

"What we're trying to do with the wind project is create an ethanol-style property," said committee member John Wood, a Monticello farmer. "Like a farmer-owned ethanol plant, it will be a farmer-owned wind energy plant where we can control the production and selling it into the grid."

The first step is matching a $100,000 federal grant with locally-raised funds — or finding 1,000 people in the Tri-States to give $100, Wood said — to study the project's feasibility.

But Wood and committee members offer no promises to contributors beyond trying to determine which locations in the state can support a commercially viable wind energy facility.

"When you're out raising money for a biodiesel or ethanol plant, you've got a prospectus, something real. In this case, we can't promise anything except to keep you informed in our progress," Wood said. "This money is your patriotic sense of duty to country, to improve the energy profile of the U.S."

Getting a payoff eventually means proving there's something to market in a farm-based renewable wind energy project.

The process begins with collecting a year's worth of wind data from elevations up to 400 feet. "We've got to prove the wind is out there, and you've got to run test equipment for a year to get an average number," Wood said.

"The next step is a market study. If you can prove the market's there and the economic model makes sense, then the last phase is write a prospectus."

If all goes well, the data collection could be done by November 2007 — and must be done by Dec. 31, 2007 for the grant — with a market study in the next three months and a prospectus sometime in 2008. "But from past experience, we may as well say 2009," Wood said.

The wind energy potential in Northwest Missouri has "been plumbed pretty well," but there's "just a thimbleful of data" statewide at the upper elevations targeted by the committee. "If you look at the wind maps, the topography in Northeast Missouri may be a little bit of a sleeper," Wood said.

The committee organized in February with members from Knox, Lewis, Marion and Osage counties and the Bootheel with 20,000 acres of land and an interest in farming wind.

A consultant involved in Wood's Grassland Beef business with wind energy experience sparked interest in seeking a Value-Added Producer Grant through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development for the project.

Missouri received funding for four of the 41 nationwide energy-related value-added grants, or almost 22 percent of the $4.7 million awarded for energy projects, said Greg Branum, Missouri State Director for USDA Rural Development in a news release.

The competitive grants may be used for planning activities, such as feasibility studies or business plans, or to provide working capital for marketing value-added agricultural products and for farm-based renewable energy projects.

For the committee, the grant could provide a way to put a modern spin on the past.

"Think about our history. If you came into Northeast Missouri in the 1880s, there was a windmill on every farm. We used wind energy exclusively to pump water, and we still do in the western states," Wood said. "We haven't reinvented the wheel. We just got smarter at it."

Contact Staff Writer Deborah Gertz Husar at dhusar@whig.com or (217) 221-3379