Quantifying the Economic Development Impacts of Wind Power in Six Rural Montana Counties Using NREL's JEDI Model; Period of Performance: December 1, 2003--May 31, 2004

The economic development potential that wind power offers is often an overlooked aspect of today's wind power projects. Much has been written about how wind can spur economic development, but few have attempted to quantify these impacts. Using the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL's) Jobs, Economic Development, and Impacts Model (JEDI), the author examined six counties in Montana toquantify these impacts. The overriding project goal was to illuminate economic development opportunities from wind project development for six Montana counties using an objective economic modeling tool. Interested stakeholders include the agriculture community, wind developers, renewable energy advocates, government officials, and other decision-makers. The Model was developed to enablespreadsheet users with limited or no economic modeling background to easily identify the statewide economic impacts associated with constructing and operating wind power plants. The Model's User Add-In feature allows users to conduct county-specific analyses using county IMPLAN (Impact Analysis for PLANning) multipliers, while state-level multipliers are contained within the Model as defaultvalues for all 50 states.