SW Wind Consultants: Developing Energy That Returns

Wayne Hesse runs a one-man show at Southwest Wind Consulting, LLC—developing wind energy parks that directly benefit Midwest communities

A day in the life of Wayne Hesse, President and Owner of Southwest Wind Consulting, LLC, would consist of a myriad of diverse tasks. “It’s a one man show,” Hesse said. “As far as going to survey sites, the legal work, the contracts, and working with vendors and engineers…I do it all.” Yet this independent businessman, who has been involved in the wind industry for nearly two decades, successfully drives his Minnesota-based company forward. Southwest Wind Consulting, LLC was created to facilitate the development of existing wind parks as well as the creation of new parks, and although autonomously run by one hardworking man, achieving this objective is a joint effort that ultimately yields great returns to communities across the Midwest. “The goal was originally to get local investors, and to get those profits returned back to these local communities in the Midwest,” Hesse said.
Southwest Wind Consulting was initially developed from a neighborhood effort. Hesse first became involved in the wind industry in 1992, when he put up a small 30 kilowatt turbine on his own farm, but it was in 2000 that he and neighbor David Norgaard began discussing the possibility of constructing a large wind turbine. The idea evolved to include additional wind towers, and became known as the Lincoln County Project. With equity partner John Doe Renewables, Hesse and Norgaard completed their vision in 2006. Today, the completed Lincoln County Project is a park with seven looming 1.25-megawatt Suzlon wind turbines. “Our first project was our greatest one, because it was such a learning process,” Hesse said. “From there we began to get questions, and we formed two companies.” One was a turbine management company, and the other was Southwest Wind Consulting, LLC, which focused on development and starting projects with farmers and local Minnesotans. David Norgaard founded the company in 2006, and Hesse joined the young business a year later. Yet at in 2008, Norgaard began a difficult battle with cancer. After he passed away in early 2009, Hesse became the sole owner of Southwest Wind Consulting.
Today Southwest Wind Consulting facilitates all of the aspects of development for existing wind farms, as well as tendering to new wind park progress. Hesse takes on a multitude of responsibilities, which include surveying land sites, conducting environmental studies, consulting, commissioning turbines, completing contracting and permitting, meeting state requirements, and providing design services for wind parks. The company also specializes in the erection and installation of MET towers, and Hesse has installed such towers that are up to 80 meters high. Currently, Southwest Wind Consulting has one project under construction and three more to be completed in the future. As a one-man-band, Hesse hopes to maintain around 4 or 5 contract projects at a time, serving Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, and occasionally Iowa and Nebraska. Although he has considered finding a younger partner before his retirement in the future, Hesse said, “I don’t see ourselves getting to be too huge. There is a lot of physical work when you’re starting to develop a project, so I don’t think we’ll become a national company, and I don’t want that. I want to stay in the Midwest region, I like to be smaller and keep more control. If you grow too large, you give up a lot of that.”
Southwest Wind Consulting does not seek large corporate investors for projects, and for that reason, the company works closely with local investors, usually consisting of 50 to 100 shareholders from Midwest communities. “Primarily, the projects that we do here have community based energy development. It isn’t all farmers either; some investors are doctors, lawyers, and U.S. postmen. Fifty to 60 percent are farmers because they are involved with the land,” Hesse said. The Community Wind North Project, for instance, will pool the resources of 150 local Minnesota shareholders to complete development of a 15-turbine park of 30 megawatts by next spring.
“In Minnesota a certain percentage of renewable wind energy has to be community based,” Hesse explained. Completed projects developed by Southwest Wind Consulting prove that local investment often signifies great returns to local communities. While wind farms provide landowners with reliable long-term revenue, they typically only occupy 2 to 3 percent of the surface area of a site, and are also compatible with other land uses such as farming, ranching, and recreational activities. Wind power development has additionally brought economic vitality to several communities across the Midwest and the United States by providing jobs, profit for landowner, and economic prosperity to communities. At the community based Southwest Wind Consulting, Hesse plans to stay true to his core company philosophy: “I am trying to get energy profits back to the communities and local tax payers—to the Minnesota residents,” he said. ELT