For five months, a group of concerned taxpayers has been in communication with Bureau Valley in an effort to understand claims that the wind turbine is profitable.  These claims have been made in public testimony by the president of the Bureau Valley School Board, himself an employee of a wind turbine company.

After attempts to obtain information from Bureau Valley were unsuccessful, a Freedom of Information Act request was filed. From numbers acquired from this FOIA request, it was determined there is an accumulated five-year loss of more than $130,000. At the end of 10 years, when the last of the turbine’s loan payments are scheduled to be made, the district can be projected to have a deficit of more than $260,000 if the expenses or repairs don’t go up. In the most recent year alone, the annual insurance and maintenance expenses have risen more than $2,000. It stands to reason as the machine ages, the higher the insurance and maintenance agreement will be.

We have brought this information to the attention of the Bureau Valley Board and requested they respond, which they agreed to do. We are still waiting for that response. Perhaps the unexpected timing of the article that appeared in the Republican several weeks ago and the personal attack described in a more recent article are intended as a response. Apparently, the Bureau Valley superintendent at least now agrees with us that after expenses are taken into account, the profitability of the wind turbine is at best questionable, or in other words, it has not been profitable.