Along with red barns and weathervanes, the rickety wooden windmill is a staple of the Midwest farm-scape. For more than a century, Minnesota farmers have been watering their livestock with the power of the wind. Many of these old farm windmills are still working hard today, but lately they're being overshadowed by a new breed that is taller, sleeker, and much stronger.

	John and Mary Dacey's turbine has towered over their Sibley County farm for 18 years. (MPR Photo/Jeff Horwich)

The windmill colonies of southwest Minnesota certainly grab your attention. Armies of white turbines fan out along Buffalo Ridge, some more than 200 feet tall. The hundreds of megawatts now flowing from the southwest have made Minnesota one of the wind power capitals of the country.

But wind power in more modest form is also creeping slowly onto farms across the state. Schools, a car dealership and even a Crookston convent are also using windmills to gain freedom from the power company. It's not a new idea or a new technology, but private wind turbines are enjoying a surge in popularity as they become more cost-effective.

The U.S. Department of Energy now lists 130 small turbines in Minnesota. John and Mary Dacey were some of the first on that list back in 1984.

"I'd say it's quite a peaceful noise, would kind of put you to sleep," John says as he looks up at the fifteen-foot fiberglass blades swooping gently atop a 100-foot tower. The wind at the moment is about 10 mph, pretty typical for these corn and soybean fields in Sibley County. The metal squeaks as a long fin keeps the blades turned into the wind.

Their turbine produces up to 17.5 kilowatts of electricity, about half as much as many newer models, but that's about what they need for their farm. The turbine is connected to a box in their garage, which in turn sends juice back into the main power grid. In late summer, with the air conditioning on, the Daceys still have a small electric bill. But in April and May they were getting $30 checks in the mail from Xcel Energy.

	The view from 100-feet up on the Dacey turbine. (MPR Photo/Jeff Horwich)

"The newer ones, from what I've heard, are more efficient," John said. "We haven't lost money. I guess we figure we got a reasonable return of interest and that's about it. But I guess if you're kind of a do-gooder, want to do something for the environment, then it's kind of the thing to do."

"Half of it was economic, half of it was being able to control something ourselves as far as energy," said Mary Dacey.

Minnesota law requires power companies to buy power back from people like the Daceys who produce extra. Minnesota gives these small producers one of the best deals around: The power company has to pay the same rate it charges consumers.

Minnesota law also calls for 10 percent of our energy to come from renewable sources by 2015. Xcel Energy is likely to get most of this from the sprawling southwestern wind farms. The capacity exists in the southwest to power hundreds of thousands of homes. Next to that, these scattered turbines make just a small dent.

	Even lying on their sides, the 20-foot-long blades reach nearly to Mabel Brelje's shoulders. (MPR Photo/Jeff Horwich)

Lola Schoenrich, who heads the Minnesota-based sustainable energy campaign known as "SEED," says smaller scale turbines still have a role to play.

"One of the things I think is especially interesting about them is that they're visible in the countryside," Schoenrich said. "They help utilities get experience with putting wind on their system and they help people in the communities to visualize what renewable energy is."

And they matter a great deal to those who put them up, like Mabel Brelje.

Brelje knocks proudly on the fiberglass blades of her new turbine, still sitting on the ground for now. Workers are preparing to raise the hundred-foot tower over Mabel Brelje's organic farm. She says she's been considering a windmill on this bluff in Mcleod County for ten years.

	Mabel Brelje spins an "anemometer" that will be mounted on the turbine. It will feed wind-speed data to computers that will automatically regulate the turbine's rotation. (MPR Photo/Jeff Horwich)

$67,000 buys a retired machine from a California wind farm that is still among the latest technology available. The blades are fat and super-efficient. Computers keep the turbine pointed into the wind and rotating at an optimal speed. Brelje's numbers show she'll pay it off in six to 10 years.

"I see it not only as a source of trying to prove something, proving that there's wind energy out there and that we can use as renewable energy," Brelje said, "but also to prove hopefully that it's been developed enough now that we can really make money at it."

She won't be alone. The foreman here says this summer in Minnesota he's putting up eight more turbines just like this one.

Renewable power sites in Minnesota A list of renewable energy projects, large and small, in Minnesota. From the U.S. Department of Energy.