By Lori EhdeSeven new wind turbines will begin turning next week near Beaver Creek, bringing the total number of wind turbines in Rock County to 11.A public ribbon cutting for the new Beaver Creek towers and substation will be from 9:45 a.m. to noon Friday, Dec. 3, in the Beaver Creek Lodge.Ground broke on the new project 2 1/2 miles north of Beaver Creek this spring, and the new blades will start making energy on Nov. 30."That’s really going to be an exciting day," said Minwind Energy president Tom Arends.The Beaver Creek wind towers are a sister operation to the four turbines northeast of Hills, which began producing energy in October 2002.Both campuses are owned/managed by Minwind Energy, a limited liability corporation made up of 250 member investors — mostly farmers — in southwest Minnesota.With all 21 blades turning (three blades per each of the seven new towers), the turbines in the new project alone will produce enough electricity to meet 90 percent of the city of Luverne’s needs.Of course, the turbines don’t supply electricity directly to Luverne, which buys its power from Missouri River Energy Services.Minwind Energy has agreements with major power companies to transmit energy captured by the blades.The Hills campus feeds power to Alliant Energy, which serves southern Minnesota and northwest Iowa. The new Beaver Creek turbines have signed on with Xcel Energy, which serves Sioux Falls and Minneapolis.With a national push to develop stable sources of renewable energy, wind turbine technology is rapidly changing to capture more power more efficiently.For example, the new Beaver Creek turbines will produce nearly twice as much power as their sister turbines built only two years ago by Hills.The new towers are the same size, about 225 feet tall, anchored on 35-foot-deep reinforced foundations. But blades on the new towers are 132 feet long — compared with the 86-foot blades on the Hills turbines.Each of the new turbines weighs about 190,000 pounds, with the blades and hub. That’s equivalent to about three semi loads of corn, Mark Willers said.Willers and Arends, both farmer investors in the Minwind projects, said their foray into wind energy has already started paying off."That’s why we do these projects," Willers said. "As a rural community, we’re always looking for ways to bring urban money down here."Minwind investors are quick to point out that money stays in the local economy."This project is community-based all the way," Arends said. "It’s owned by people in this community and that money all stays here."Willers said the two locations add to Rock County’s tax base. Generating $7,000 to $10,000 in property taxes each year, depending on output.Other bragging points for wind energy is that it’s renewable fuel — the source will never run out.And it’s clean. There’s no waste, like that left behind in nuclear powered energy production for example, and there are no emissions or raw sewage involved in wind energy production."What a beautiful project," Arends said.Minwind Energy is affiliated with the American Wind Energy Association. More information about wind energy can be found on the AWEA Web site at www.awea.org.Local Minwind representatives can be reached through their Luverne office on south Highway 75. The phone number is 283-9140.