There is a new type of farm spreading across the Kansas horizon. These farms do not have crops to cultivate, instead they harvest the wind and sunrays.
Wind and solar farms have steadily increased across the state the last few years. Since the farms are large, a lot of renewable energy companies target rural areas in the United States to produce energy.
Lona DuVall, director of the Finney County Economic Development Corporation, said energy production is likely the future of the region, and her county can be at the forefront, if county residents choose to be.
“We have excellent wind and we have excellent solar. More days of sunshine than San Diego, California, for heaven's sake,” DuVall said.
Some agree with DuVall that energy production is a future economic driver for western Kansas, a region that has survived off mostly agriculture alone for decades. In more recent years, it’s hard to drive through the region without seeing an expanding field of wind turbines standing tall across the Plains.
For small towns, these projects could be a source of economic growth, something rural Kansas counties have been searching for. But, skepticism has also grown alongside wind and solar, and that is putting some of the potential growth on hold.
It’s not just the wind and solar farms growing, it’s also the country’s demand for energy.
As data centers grow, energy demands in the U.S. are projected to increase 25% by 2030.
“Our job is to create an economic future for our area,” DuVall said. “We don’t tell anyone what to build. We just present the opportunities that are there, and there is a lot of potential in producing all types of energy.”
For a rural county, these projects could bring much needed tax revenue or donations in the form of payments from the companies.
When a wind farm is greenlit, it usually brings in hundreds of temporary construction jobs to build the turbines. Then 5 to 15 more permanent jobs to maintain them.
Another benefit from wind and solar energy is the lease payments to landowners. When these energy projects come in, they almost always set up on farmland or ranchland, meaning they pay to lease the land. Farmers could make thousands of dollars in extra income.
That can be a big deal for a Kansas county. Many of the counties face a difficult task, finding economic growth opportunities in a region that is projected to see steady population declines.
Just south of Finney County, Seward County Economic Development Director Eli Svaty said there are billions of dollars to be made in rural America right now.
“Our existing infrastructure is maxed out. We've got a history of this extractive economy with gas and oil and ag. Here's a chance to balance out markets that are historically up and down and give us some consistent income,” Svaty said.
But Svaty ran into pushback from a group of locals. Those people have spoken against the county bringing in any wind projects and local elected officials have listened. That’s something happening across the country.
That has stalled a wind energy project that was supposed to land in Seward County.
The skepticism aimed at wind comes at a time when backlash is quite common. The Trump administration has been hostile to some renewable energy projects, particularly wind. The administration tried to halt the development of offshore wind projects for 90 days at the end of last year, which is tied up in a legal fight.
Trump has said windmills ruin the natural landscape, kill birds and are noisy. Proponents of wind say turbines are clean energy sources and quieter than road traffic.
Kansas has seen a similar sentiment across the state, with counties in central Kansas like McPherson, Harvey and Marion instituting temporary bans on wind energy farms.
Svaty says that makes his job harder and makes his county look less business-friendly.
“It's this horrible timing where you have all of this potential economic growth for a region that doesn't see that very often, but now we're seeing an unprecedented backlash that didn't exist 10 years ago,” Svaty said.
Neal Coffey is a resident of Seward County. He’s now retired, but spent his career in the energy industry, including gas, oil and even battery production. He has spoken at county commission meetings bringing up several worries when it comes to wind projects.
“I don't want to see impact on adjoining property owners to the point where it can be detrimental to their health, to their sanity, from a noise perspective,” Coffey said.
Coffey says he is not totally against wind energy, but he is concerned with proximity to homes and skeptical if the energy companies will be financially beneficial for the county.
Wind energy projects in Kansas get a 10 year tax abatement. So to Coffey’s point, counties do not usually see the tax revenue roll in until years after they are installed. Some oil and gas pipelines can also receive a 10-year property tax exemption from the Kansas Department of Revenue.
To encourage counties to approve wind farms, the companies often negotiate Payments in Lieu of Taxes, or PILOTs, with local counties to help to fix roads, house construction workers or improve local schools.
Coffey feels counties are not properly prepared with regulations for the new companies coming in and setting up shop
“Seward County's rules and regulations for solar and wind are three pages. Three pages has a high potential to be inadequate,” Coffey said.
Coffey compared that to a county like Barton, which has no wind projects, but more thorough regulations.
Some residents in southwest Kansas see this kind of pushback as an obstacle for rejuvenating a rural county.
Take Stevens County for example. It has a population of just over 5,000. Their claim to fame for years was energy production through oil and gas. The county’s biggest town, Hugoton, has the largest natural gas field in North America according to the Kansas Geological Survey.
Jan Leonard, economic development director in Stevens County, said the natural gas wells aren’t producing anymore. At the current rate of decline, it will be more expensive to extract the natural gas than its value.
But wind energy and solar could turn things around and give them tax revenue or payments to funnel back to the county.
“If we get these wind towers to go back towards the county fire department, or the schools, or whatever, it's going to help out a ton,” Leonard said.
For Leonard, he sees solar and wind energy projects as the solution to help his county grow, and lower property taxes.
As far as the pushback to the noise, blinking lights and landscape alteration, he said that does not make sense to him because the region already is familiar with these from the established agriculture industry.
“People were fine with center pivots with lights and loud irrigation motors. You get over it,” Leonard said.
A report from Climate Central found in 2024 that almost half of the energy produced in Kansas came from renewable sources, mostly wind turbines.
This encourages Dorothy Barnett, she’s the director of the Climate and Energy Project.
She says that despite the backlash, 13 Kansas counties have 55 renewable energy projects planned.
“Despite not seeing a lot of projects under construction right now, we do see that projects continue to try to make their way through the interconnection process,” Barnett said.
Barnett said that wind energy is some of the cheapest to produce at just $37 a megawatt hour compared to natural gas, which can cost $48 to $107 per megawatt hour. She said Kansans are practical people, and she believes rural Kansas will be a hub for renewable energy.
“I think as we continue to see more extreme weather, more drought, as water becomes more precious in southwest Kansas, and as energy costs go up, I think people will more seriously look to renewable energy,” Barnett said.
Calen Moore covers western Kansas for High Plains Public Radio and the Kansas News Service. You can email him at cmoore@hppr.org.
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