Wind power getting brisk
Cincinatti.com (OH)
August 11, 2008
www.news.cincinnati.com
By Mike Boyer
REILY TWP. -- When Ron and Victoria Cox rebuilt their 100-year-old farmhouse after a fire over a year ago, they added a small wind turbine to generate electricity. Although the wind is down in summer on their hillside farm, the Skystream turbine, which sits on a 50-foot pole about 100 feet from their house, cut electric bills almost in half last winter.
Now, the Coxes plan to add a second turbine and become distributors.
"This doesn't hurt anybody, and it's a good investment in the future," Victoria Cox, 60, said.
• Special section: Coping with rising costs
• Growth of U.S. small wind market (PDF)
Wind power hasn't stirred much of a breeze in the United States, until now.
But as oil and natural gas prices rise, wind power - ranging from small individual turbines to large utility-scale wind farms - is gaining velocity.
Suddenly, wind is prime time thanks to Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens' multimillion-dollar media campaign touting his $14 billion wind project to reduce U.S. reliance on imported oil.
Wind power represents only 1 percent of the nation's energy, but last year the United States led the world with more than 5,000 megawatts of new wind capacity. The Department of Energy says wind power could produce 20 percent of the nation's energy by 2030.
Ohio's only utility-scale wind farm produces 7.2 megawatts of electricity, enough to serve about 1,850 homes, in Bowling Green. Kentucky has no wind farms.
By comparison, the nation's leaders - Texas and California - had 4,446 megawatts and 2,439 megawatts of wind capacity, respectively, at the end of last year, according to the Department of Energy. A megawatt of wind- generated electricity can supply about 300 homes.
A megawatt is a measure of total capacity, and the length of time it can supply a home depends on how long the wind blows and how much power customers draw, according to the American Wind Energy Association.
Potential locations for large-scale wind projects in Kentucky are generally limited to the eastern part of the state, said Andrew Melnykovych, spokesman for the Kentucky Public Service Commission.
Nonetheless, Gov. Steve Beshear last month announced plans to develop a comprehensive energy strategy that includes greater reliance on renewable sources such as wind.
And Kentucky's PSC is contemplating expanding guidelines for utility net-metering, which gives customers credit for the excess electricity they generate. The PSC change would expand net-metering to include wind turbines and not just solar collection systems as it does now.
Ohio's new energy law, initiated by Gov. Ted Strickland, requires the state's four investor-owned utilities to generate 12.5 percent of their power from renewable sources such as wind and solar by 2025.
Utilities, including Duke Energy, with more than 600,000 customers in Southwest Ohio, are seeking proposals for renewable energy to feed their electric systems starting next year.
Customer-generated wind and solar are still minute in Duke's Ohio and Kentucky service area. Of 29 net-metering customers, with 165 kilowatts of capacity, the Cox family is one of just three customers using wind, for a total of 14 kilowatts of electricity.
The remaining have solar collection systems. But Duke says the number of net-metering customers has increased dramatically in the past two years. The utility had just six net-metering customers before 2007.
While experts say Southwest Ohio doesn't have sufficient wind to make large-scale projects economical, that doesn't mean homeowners and businesses won't makes investments in smaller turbines to supply a portion of their power.
Because the wind itself is free, an investment in a turbine "is a hedge against future fuel price hikes," said Joe Jefferis, managing partner of Powerflo LLC, the Dayton, Ohio, distributor of the Sky- stream turbine bought by the Coxes. Skystream turbines won't supply all of a home's electricity, but they can reduce the power homeowners buy from their utility by as much as 40 percent, he said.
"We're in the midst of a dramatic change to renewable energy," said Jefferis. "Skystream turbines allow individuals to participate in the change just like buying a hybrid car."
The Skystream turbines, produced by Arizona-based Southwest Windpower Inc., start around $15,000, but rising steel prices for poles and other costs are pushing up installation expenses. Since 2004, the state of Ohio has offered grants to homeowners for up to half the installation cost of renewable projects, including wind turbines.
But that program has been suspended since spring while the Ohio Department of Development, which administers it, makes changes aimed at enhancing the program, said Christina Panoska, outreach manager. The program has made grants for 65 residential wind projects across Ohio since 2004. The agency will be outlining changes in the program to installers on Wednesday and expects to resume making grants later this year, she said.
Geoff Greenfield is president of Third Sun Solar and Wind Power Ltd., an Athens company that has installed more than 200 solar and wind systems since 1997, including Southwest Ohio's largest wind installation, a six-turbine system at the Ralph Dull farm northwest of Dayton. Greenfield says the new interest in wind is an important step in developing the nation's energy independence.
But he concedes: "For most homeowners, wind isn't as cost-effective as solar."
The economics of installing a small wind turbine compared with a comparable rooftop solar collection system don't add up for most homeowners in part because there's a $2,000 federal income tax credit for solar, which isn't available for wind, he said. In addition, a wind turbine has a lot of moving parts compared with a solar collector, which can mean ongoing maintenance expenses, he said.
Still, wind advocates won't be deterred.
"We used to curse the wind," said Victoria Cox when she and her husband were rebuilding. But now with their net-metering agreement with Duke, they know when the wind blows it's helping their utility bills down.
"We love the wind," she says. |
