Southwest Windpower - Renewable Energy Made Simple

Mighty wind: Turbines help residents harness energy

Loveland Reporter-Herald (CO)
October 11, 2009
http://www.reporterherald.com
By Pamela Dickman

The wind that once made Lynn McDonough grimace now brings a smile to the Loveland woman’s face.

“I used to say I didn’t like the wind,” she said stepping outside her home just east of Loveland. “Now, I do.”

McDonough and her husband, Dave, installed three 60-foot-tall wind turbines outside their rural home Tuesday.

The towers will produce enough power for their house and garage and likely even bolster the Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association grid, said Toby Childers, the Loveland man who designed and installed their system.
“It’s an investment,” said Dave McDonough, smiling as he looked at the turbines towering in his yard.

When the McDonoughs learned of the possibility from Childers — a family friend who just opened a business to design residential renewable energy systems — they signed on.

“It’s always been pretty cool,” said Dave McDonough. “You’re generating your own power without putting anything in the air.

“It’s green.”

The McDonoughs may be Childers’ first clients for Small Circle Energy, but they are not the first Larimer County residents to install wind power in their homes.
County planner Karin Madson said a handful of residents have obtained permits since the county changed its rules in May 2008 to allow residential wind power in the unincorporated areas of the county.

Interest, Madson said, has increased.

“There’s a push at the state and federal level to further alternative energy,” she said.

Some interest also has been expressed in Loveland, but the city currently does not allow residential wind towers.

That discussion is just beginning.

Senior planner Brian Burson said his staff began researching the possibility this
summer and will open discussion with the Loveland Planning Commission later this month.

It is too early to say whether city officials will want to pursue a change.
“With the tower heights you would feel comfortable with at a residential site, the value of wind power would be limited,” Burson said.

Outside the city, in the unincorporated county, however, taller turbines are allowed with special review.

The McDonoughs went through that process over several months before receiving permission in July.

With Childers’ help, they have poured concrete, completed wiring and raised the turbines.

The couple hopes to have the required inspections complete and the wind power online this week.

The turbines they purchased from Southwest Windpower are designed especially for homes. The Arizona company has different sizes and models.

Childers said the design and style are custom to each home because the layout, amount of wind and power use varies.

The price also varies but would start at about $12,000 per unit, including permit fees, according to Childers.

However, the federal government offers a 30 percent tax credit for people who install wind power.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy Web site, residents across the country have expressed interest in residential wind power. The site includes state maps that depict areas with enough wind to warrant turbines.

Several regions of Colorado, including northern Larimer and Weld counties along the Wyoming and Nebraska borders are ranked “good wind areas.”

While the McDonoughs’ home is not in the prime wind area on the federal map, they said they receive more than enough to power their home.

The turbine blades will start producing power when the wind hits 10 mph, which they said happens all the time east of Loveland.

“We have the space, and we have the wind,” said Lynn McDonough.

“Let the wind work for us.”