National Wind, LLC, Receives 2009 Minnesota Environmental Initiative Green Business of the Year Award

Minneapolis, Minnesota – May 28, 2009 – National Wind, LLC, announces today that it has received the 2009 Minnesota Environmental Initiative (MEI) Green Business and Environmental Management Award. The award recognizes National Wind’s business model of partnering with communities to build utility-scale wind farms. National Wind is currently developing twelve families of wind projects across the Midwest and Plains States. The company has more than 1000 landowner partners and over 1300 megawatts (MW) of locally-owned wind projects in development or operation in Minnesota alone.

“National Wind’s partnerships with communities are excellent examples of green business developments that help preserve the environment for future generations,” says MEI Executive Director, Mike Harley. “Their grassroots wind energy projects start with local communities. By creating opportunities for community members to influence the development process and own a stake in the project, National Wind engenders broad support for clean energy and environmental stewardship.”

The key innovative component of National Wind’s business model is joint ownership with local landowners to develop utility-scale wind farms. This business structure is unique among utility-scale wind developers. Community owned wind farms provide greater financial benefits to local economies than non-community owned wind projects. National Wind couples these benefits with the economies of scale achieved by utility-scale wind development.

“We have accepted this award on behalf of our 50 employees, our 450 rural farmer-partners and the thousands of landowners that will participate in our projects,” says Leon Steinberg, CEO of National Wind, LLC. “Without all of their involvement, this award would not be possible. We want to acknowledge MEI’s success in building consensus to tackle important environmental issues. We also want to thank the utility sponsors of the 2009 awards, namely Great River Energy, Xcel Energy and Minnesota Power.”

View picture here: www.nationalwind.com/files/MEINationalWind-3.jpg


About National Wind, LLC:
National Wind is the leader in developing utility-scale (50 megawatts or larger) community wind energy projects. We form powerful community wind energy partnerships with property owners, assuring that the project’s economic benefits are shared with the surrounding community. National Wind and its subsidiary, Wind Energy Developers, LLC, have participated in developing 12 wind energy projects and currently have over 4,000 megawatts in development. National Wind projects are located in Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado and Ohio. The company has an additional 1,500 megawatts of wind energy in advanced feasibility study stages and is continually exploring expansion opportunities in other states. Please visit http://www.nationalwind.com for more information.

About the Minnesota Environmental Initiative:
The Minnesota Environmental Initiative is a 17-year-old nonprofit organization that builds partnerships to develop collaborative solutions to Minnesota’s environmental problems. The organization works with nonprofit, business and government partners to develop consensus on critical issues and move collectively toward positive environmental outcomes. MEI began the annual Environmental Initiative Awards program in 1994. Nominations are solicited, and a panel of independent judges selects the finalists and the ultimate winners. Please visit our website for more information http://www.mn-ei.org/.