Smoky Hills Wind Project is being built in two phases 20 miles west of Salina Kansas just off I-70

The Smoky Hills Wind Project is being built in two phases 20 miles west of Salina Kansas just off I-70. This wind farm will be able to supply the electricity for about 75,000 homes. By comparison, Salina has about 20,000 homes. It will be completed by November of this year. There are 120 landowners and some 26000 acres involved however the project will use less than 2% of the land and that includes all roads, turbine foundations and maintenance buildings. The area economic impact will be sizeable because to the PILTS, lease payments to landowners, construction, operations and management. The only financial figures that have been released are the Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILTS) for Ellsworth and Lincoln counties.

The county budgets of Lincoln and Ellsworth will paid the following amounts in lieu of taxes:

According to Dawn Harlaw of the Lincoln County Clerks Office they will receive

Phase I, $275,000 initial payment and $200,000 per year for 10 years

Phase II, $405,000 initial payment and $294,000 per year for 10 years

According to Jan Andrews of the Ellsworth County Clerks Office they will receive

Phase I, $125,000 initial payment and $100,000 per year for 9 years

Phase II, $184,151 initial payment and $147,321 per year for 10 year

The above is only a small part of the economic development that is starting to happen in the area. Based on the reported cost of $166,000,000 to build the 100 MW wind farm at Spearville Kansas, one could estimate that the construction cost of the Smoky Hills Wind Project will come in at around $500,000,000. Yearly total lease payments to landowners I am guessing would be about $5000 per turbine times 155 turbines would come in close to $775,000 per year. If one could get a hold of the total actual costs and payments for the project and plug in the chamber of commerce multiplier (CCM) of 5, then you would begin to get an idea of the economic impact.