Across the globe, communities are banding together and are doing something unusual...they're getting paid by utility companies.

It's true!

From California to England, thousands of people are strapping on their venture capitalist hats and starting "community wind" projects, in an effort to make money in a sustainable way.

Community wind projects most commonly take the form of wind turbine co-ops, where local residents are at least partial owners of small to medium sized wind farms. In this, local stakeholders buy shares of partial ownership in the coop with the goal of making real returns on their investments...while generating clean, green power in the process.

This type of project on a local level is ideal for communities that enjoy high, consistent winds. Not to mention, an excellent mechanism for job creation.

In an extremely sluggish world economy, any job creation is a great thing, and according to a National Renewable Energy Laboratory study, community wind farms add 4-6 year long jobs per megawatts of potential power during construction and .3-.6 jobs during operation.

One of the early movers of this trend is the Baywind Energy Coop, across the pond at Harlock Hill, England. In 1996 this organization of local residents organized and raised 1.2 million Pounds ($1.96 Million US) to buy 2 500kW turbines.

While there were some skeptics at first, this project was so successful, just one year later the same group made a second share offer to buy a third turbine which was located at Haverigg II site. Now these folks are enjoying annual dividends of 6%-8%.

And here in the U.S. "Goodhue Wind" is a community wind coop that is just about "shovel ready" in Goodhue County, Minnesota. This project will have a potential capacity of 78 megawatts and could power up to 24,000 homes.

When the idea for a wind farm came up in the community, the local residents knew that they wanted to be major stakeholders due to the extensive list of benefits to a community wind project which include:

• 5 times the local value compared to a similar corporate project.

• 3.4 times the local job creation of a similar corporate project.

• 78 megawatts of new, clean energy added to the grid.

In this case, Goodhue County expects to create 312-468 construction jobs and 23-47 long term management jobs.

And this is just the beginning.

With the Obama administration's heavy focus on renewable energy, coupled with billions flowing from the stimulus, these projects have begun popping up from coast to coast.

Just a few of these projects in the works include:

• The Illinois Rural Electric Cooperative-1.65mW Department of Energy Wind Coop of the Year

• Our Wind Cooperative - 100kW (Washington)

• HullWind-Massachusetts - 2.46mW