Mar. 22--GOLDENDALE -- An electrician enlarged his shop. A fencing contractor is so busy he's had to stop advertising. A former drywaller loves his new job stringing electrical cable up 200-foot ladders.

In rural Klickitat County, wind farm construction is driving new employment in a place that's struggled for years after high-paying jobs in timber and aluminum dried up.

It's not a wide-open boom, but it's definitely helping, said Jim Allyn, owner of Allyn's Building Supply, which recently saw a 20 percent spike in sales and was able to take on an extra worker.

The prevailing mentality: The wind blows anyway, it might as well blow money.

"There's more than wind surfing on this stuff," said Mike Canon, economic development director for Klickitat County.

No one knows exactly how many temporary construction jobs have been created, but if current plans are borne out, the wind farms will ultimately start an estimated 535 permanent jobs and generate nearly $15 million in annual property taxes.

The county is becoming the Northwest's wind farm capital with 14 projects either built, under construction or in the planning process. Five are producing some level of electricity so far.

If all of them are built, they will have the capacity to produce 2,661 megawatts, enough to power potentially more than 1 million homes.

Windy Point and Windy Flats are the latest, and largest wind farms. Together, they will be one of the largest wind projects in the United States, according to developer Cannon Power Group of San Diego.

When complete next year, the wind farms will stretch across 26 continuous miles of ridgeline above the north shore of the Columbia River and have a capacity to generate 500 megawatts of electricity, enough for up to 250,000 homes.

The tips of the turbine blades soar 415 feet off the ground, creating an imposing view from the wheat farms and cattle ranches dotting the hills surrounding Goldendale, with a population of 3,715.

The company plans to sell some of that power to California and has signed letters-of-intent to do so.

But while the power heads south, the jobs are here and that's a relief to a county with chronically high unemployment, 12.3 percent last month.

Hiring local workers

Construction work is done through a myriad of subcontractors, making exact employment statistics and wage information elusive, said Brandy Myers, the project administrator.

However, more than 150 workers are now building the two Cannon wind farms. Jobs range from clerical work to road and site excavation to wood framing to wiring.