Wind energy offers a lifeline for this Kansas rancher
Skip to main content
Search
Search
Search
Show Mobile Menu
Search
Search
Tom Clynes<br>6 minute read
Wind energy offers a lifeline for this Kansas rancher
Published:<br>October 3, 2025
The first electricity to reach the Ferrell ranch house in Beaumont, Kansas came not from wood or coal, but from the wind. Back in 1923, when Pete Ferrell’s great-grandfather built the homestead, he installed a Jacobs Windjammer direct-current turbine with a Delco glass battery to store its energy. The house was off-grid from the start.<br>“Renewable energy was just practical,” says Ferrell, whose 7,000-acre tallgrass prairie ranch has supported four generations of his family. “It always struck me as odd that it became political.”
Royalties from wind power have helped Pete Ferrell keep his ranch intact and positioned to be passed down to the next generation. (courtesy Pete Ferrell)
Today, Ferrell and his wife still live in that same house — although now, the turbines outside are considerably larger. Fifty of them — comprising half of Kansas’ pioneering Elk River Wind Project — stand on Ferrell’s land, spinning above a sea of grass and cattle.<br>In the two decades since the turbines were installed, the Elk River project has evolved into a quiet but powerful example of how clean energy can provide not just electricity, but security and survival in an increasingly uncertain rural economy.<br>When wind is your best cash crop<br>Ranching, like farming, is a volatile business. Prices rise and fall. Rain comes or it doesn’t. But the wind? The wind almost always blows in the Flint Hills of Kansas.<br>“The big scary word in agriculture is drought,” says Ferrell. “It adds a great deal of uncertainty to our lives. I tell people, “You know what is my best cash crop? It blows even during a drought.”<br>Since the Elk River project launched in 2005, about half of Ferrell’s income has come from wind royalties. That consistency has allowed him to keep his ranch intact and positioned to be passed down to the next generation.<br>“I have two grown children and four grandkids, and they love this place,” Ferrell says. “Because of the wind farm, they’ll be able to perpetuate it without financial burden.”<br>From hard no to wind advocate<br>Ferrell wasn’t always a clean-energy champion. When a Fortune 500 company approached him in the 1990s about leasing land for wind turbines, his gut reaction was “a pretty hard no.”<br>“I thought it would ruin the landscape,” he recalls. “But they were patient. They flew me out to Altamont Pass in California to talk with ranchers who had wind generators on their land. One of them said, ‘What turbines? We are still caring for our land as we always did.’ That’s what got through to me.”
Cattle share Pete Ferrell’s 7,000-acre ranch with 50 wind turbines. (courtesy Pete Ferrell)
Ferrell signed a 35-year lease. But the deal collapsed when the developer deemed the project uneconomical. So Ferrell took matters into his own hands and went shopping for a new partner. After attracting six offers, he signed with Greenlight Energy Resources, which built the project that now supplies enough energy to meet the annual needs of about 60,000 homes.<br>Since then, Ferrell has joined the board of Renewable Energy Farmers of America (REFA), a peer-to-peer network offering support and technical know-how to farmers and ranchers interested in leasing their land for solar or wind.<br>“I wish REFA had existed when I started,” Ferrell says. “There’s huge cultural pressure against the development of renewables. What we do is provide a kind of hand-holding process for people who, given the opportunity, would like to explore it.”
Topics
Climate and energy
Clean energy
Share
Telegram
Environmental news that matters, straight to your inbox
Inspiring stories about climate, people and the planetOpt in to get alerts from Environmental Defense Fund about critical environmental decisions and ways to take action."<br>data-lists_insert_before="email"<br>data-button="Subscribe"<br>data-privacy="true">
When politics blocks wind energy, farms lose<br>Across the country, clean energy projects are running into headwinds at both the local and federal level. The Trump administration has repeatedly attacked wind power, rolled back renewable energy incentives and promoted climate-polluting fossil fuels instead.<br>According to a recent Columbia Law School report, more than 400 counties in 44 states adopted severe restrictions on renewable energy last year alone.<br>“What’s really unfortunate is that those bans can take away opportunities for farmers and ranchers to generate income from their own land,” says Nicholas Glover, who leads Environmental Defense Fund’s work to rapidly expand clean energy.
The wind almost always blows in the Flint Hills of Kansas. (courtesy Pete Ferrell)
Glover points to research showing that wind projects can earn landowners upwards of $10,000 annually per turbine....