NEWS

Getting hooked on wind
The Morning Sentinel (ME)
May 31, 2007
www.morningsentinel.mainetoday.com

WINSLOW -- Frank Giordano might stop short of hoping for gale-force winds to strike his North Pond Road property, but he'd be more than happy to see daily stiff breezes.

Such is the mindset of a person who just had a wind generator hooked up in his backyard.

Giordano talked with the pride of a newly-minted dad Wednesday as a work crew installed his Skystream 3.7 turbine.

"What I'm thinking about," he said, "is saving some on my electrical bill. Electric costs are too much these days. They keep getting higher and higher. And I'm also thinking about the environment."

Giordano is the latest in a growing number of Mainers to invest in the alternative energy source.

Robert Greig of All Season Home Improvement Co. installed five Skystream wind generators last fall and has 10 more orders to fill in the weeks ahead. He said All Season is one of only two Maine businesses that offer the product.

Greig said the people making the $12,500 to $13,500 investment -- installation included -- are much like Giordano. They are people, he said, motivated by both environmental and economic concerns.

On the economic side, Greig said, the payback is gradual. He estimates on average that his customers will need eight to 10 years to recoup their investment.

But that situation could improve, he said, if electric rates continue to rise and federal and state proposals to provide tax credits for investing in wind power gain approval -- Rep. William Browne, R-Vassalboro, has sponsored a bill that would reimburse 30 percent of the sales tax paid on a wind generator.

The environmental benefits are straightforward. Every kilowatt generated by wind power is a kilowatt hour that does not have to be generated by a fossil fuel source.

Southwest Windpower, the Flagstaff, Ariz., company that manufactures the Skystream, claims that those who purchase their device typically save 30 to 80 percent on their electricity bill.

Greig stressed that savings can vary tremendously, depending on a consumer's energy consumption and the average wind speed his or her generator encounters.

With an average wind speed of 8 mph, the Skystream can generate about 100 kilowatt hours a month, he said. But those kilowatt hours soar to 800, he said, when the average wind speed hits 24 mph.

Fairfield resident Paul Kelley, one of Greig's first customers, has had his wind generator in operation since January.

In March, he said, the machine generated nearly 400 kilowatt hours, not enough to cover the 1,200 kilowatt hours his big farmhouse requires, but still a significant savings on his bill.

"Where I'm located," he said, "we get a pretty good wind all the time.

We get the wind that comes off the Kennebec River."

The Skystream 3.7 stands about 41 feet from its base to the tips of the three 12-foot rotor blades. The generator weighs 165 pounds and the pole is 635 pounds, Greig said.

Although not silent in operation, the Skystream is quiet enough that normal outdoor activity drowns out most of the noise its blades make, Greig said.

At 41 feet, the wind generator doesn't tower above many trees either.

But as Kelley has learned, it does draw attention.

"I get two or three people a week who stop by just to say hello and ask questions about it," Kelley said.

Among those guests have been writers from The New York Times and Mother Earth News.

Kelley said Mother Earth News interviewed him for an article on wind power for its July issue. The Times contacted him about two months ago, he said, but the article has yet to appear.

Giordano has yet to see the media storm his property to get his insights on personal wind power.

Still, he, too, is seeing interest building in the Skystream.

"I have at least 10 friends of mine who want to come over to see it," he said, "because they want one."

Greig said wind generators remain a novelty in this country. In other countries, though, wind power already is gaining momentum.

"If you're in Germany or France," he said, "you can't drive a mile without seeing one of those things."