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Enexco will hold a formal dedication of its Shiloh II project on Thursday, but the turbines are already online.There was a time when the hills of Solano County would have been the last place anyone might look for economic stimulation.
"Well they guaranteed me $50 an acre," says Irwin Anderson, a farmer.
Not for sheep, or wild oats, or anything which grows, but that which blows. For Anderson and other farmers, the latest cash crop has been around longer than memories.
"You would have to lean into the wind just to stand up, sometimes," says Anderson.
And so, the boom came near Rio Vista with hundreds of wind turbines with 75 more going online.
The Solano County Wind Resource area covers around 6100 acres. Windmills take up roughly two percent of that land. Farmers lease space to energy companies for windmill pads, and the industry is hiring.
These wind turbines are some of the biggest in the world, with heights usually being 30 stories from ground to the top of the tips, and almost a football field across. When the wind blows, each can power almost 1,000 homes.
"The larger the swept rotor, the more energy that is produced," says Mark Tholke, of Enxco.
If you wonder what kind of person makes a project like this happen, it's Tholke. He has both an MBA in business, and a masters in environmental science. He worries about climate change, and laments how the paperwork for this project took four long years.
"Mostly the frustration is dealing with individuals within organizations that are in no rush. They feel no sense of urgency," said Mark Tholke, Enxco.
But, for Anthony Perales, the timing could not have been better. Last November, the Ford dealership where he used to work, laid him off. Now, he is one of eight permanent hires in a brand new industry. The Shilo II project also put 300 people to work in its construction phase.
"I have a family to raise. It was really rough for the month and a half I was out of work. It doesn't seem like long, but it put a dent," says Anthony Perales, a wind turbine technician.
Long ago, Robert Frost wrote about wind in his poem "The Strong Are Saying Nothing." He wrote, "Wind goes from farm to farm in wave on wave, But carries no cry of what is hoped to be."
In Solano County, they feel differently about it.
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