Small wind turbines get a new advocate
 
From the April 19, 2002 print edition
Utilities Notebook
By Steve Ernst
 
Putting up a single wind turbine may be about to get easier thanks to a new nonprofit called Our Wind Co-op.
 
The new organization is being formed by two nonprofits, Olympia-based Northwest Cooperative Development Center and Seattle-based Northwest Sustainable Energy for Economic Development. These groups are in the final stages of securing funding for the new co-op, which hopes to install at least 10 small wind systems on farms, ranches or rural sites over the next 18 months.
 
The goal of Our Wind Co-op is to demonstrate that locally owned wind turbines can produce power to meet local loads, while being cost-effective. The group will be installing 10 10-kilowatt turbines, capable of generating between 1,200 kilowatt hours and 1,600 kilowatt hours per month. So far the group has about 50 landowners, public utility districts and wind turbine companies interested in participating.
 
"We'd love to see these initial 100 kilowatts grow to at least a megawatt of dispersed, clean generation - with hundreds of farms powered by small wind turbines throughout the region - by 2005," said Rob Harmon, vice president of the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, one of the project's major sponsors.
 
The group is hoping to land $200,000 from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo. Our Wind Co-op has a $60,000 commitment from the Bonneville Environmental Foundation and a $36,000 pledge from a host of Washington public utility districts, which will also help with construction of the turbines.
 
"We are still looking for other investors to help pay for installation of the turbines," said Heather Rhoads-Weaver, executive director of the Seattle sustainable energy group. Investors would be paid back from the sale of power produced by the turbines, Rhoads-Weaver said. "Ultimately, Our Wind Co-op will help remove barriers to widespread distributed, locally-owned wind energy development in the Pacific Northwest," she said.
 
Reach Steve Ernst at 206-447-8505 ext. 114 or sernst@bizjournals.com.
Copyright 2002 American City Business Journals Inc. http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2002/04/22/newscolumn1.html