Wind power, long used on country farms for tasks such as pumping water, is finally heading into town. The renewable resource is producing savings, and opportunities for a wide range of city folk.
A growing number of businesses are looking to wind power to not only offset rising power costs and obtain a “green” advantage. State-of-the-art technology improvements have convinced many that the time to act is now. Among them: John Deere dealers; the city of Montpelier, Indiana; Sault College in Sault Ste. Marie, Canada; and the Autry Technology Center in Enid, Oklahoma.
“Why did we jump into the wind market?” asked Don Van Houweling, general manager of the Van Wall Group, the Midwest’s largest John Deere dealer. “For the first time, the technology is designed for commercial farms or businesses on the electric grid, not just remote off-grid sites.”
Van Houweling uses wind turbines and is a dealer of them. At his Perry, Iowa dealership, for instance, he has installed an S-Series wind turbine by Endurance Wind Power, a leader in small wind turbine technology. The unit is capable of producing up to 20,000 kWh per year, about 20 percent of the site’s needed power. A larger unit capable of producing over 200,000 kWh per year is scheduled to produce about 85 percent of the power needed at his upcoming Des Moines, Iowa site.
“Unlike traditional windmills requiring a complex DC to AC power inverter prone to breakdown, grid-compatible technology, like Endurance, can provide up to 30 percent more power and greater reliability,” he said.
When a tornado destroyed Mike Estes’ family-owned John Deere dealership in Greensburg, Kansas, as well as most of the town, wind power got his BTI-Greensburg dealership back in business again.
“The first thing to go up after the tornado was an S-Series Endurance wind turbine that powered the construction of our new building,” said Estes.
The renewable power provided by the wind turbine, along with other measures taken, helped the new BTI-Greensburg dealership become the world’s first John Deere to receive LEED Platinum certification, the U.S. Green Building Council’s highest designation for sustainable design.
Inspired by the performance of the Endurance S-Series turbine, Estes and his family started a new business, BTI Wind Energy, which has become the North American distributor for Endurance. “We turned to the state-of-the-art wind turbines because they offer the best features of large megawatt units brought down to the individual user and dealer level,” said Estes.
Estes pointed out a number of features that will help users get the most out of the next generation technology. “Unlike traditional wind turbines with the controls and generator high above ground, these are designed for easy maintenance with the controls and electronics at ground level,” Estes explained.
“For safety and productivity, these have a high wind sensor and dual disc brakes that automatically stop and release the rotors when appropriate and dealers can remotely monitor and control the turbine operation via a wireless interface,” he said.
Federal and Local Governments Support for Wind Power
While a recent U.S. Department of Energy examined the feasibility of using wind energy to generate 20 percent of the nation’s electricity demand by 2030, some local government agencies are finding answers to significant challenges in wind power.
“To reduce odor and potentially expensive sludge build up in one of our lagoons, we needed a solution,” said Wayne Hanson, charge officer of Montpelier, Indiana’s city wastewater treatment facility.
The main concern was lagoon number one, where waste solids settled and odor became a problem when the lagoon’s winter ice melted. Another concern was sludge build up, which reduced lagoon capacity and could have required dredging at a cost up to $1 million, including treatment to meet EPA standards.
Hanson wanted to aerate the lagoon to reduce odor and the sludge bed, but found most approaches too expensive.
“Electric aeration would have cost $80,000 a year just in electricity. Of the ten companies we contacted, only Koenders made aeration affordable, and they did it with wind power,” said Hanson. “Continuous aeration keeps the microbial activity aerobic and prevents the build up of noxious hydrogen sulfide gas. We expect it to reduce the sludge bed so we won’t have to dredge.”
Bottom up-water aeration gives water the strength to burn off the excess chemicals and pollutants that cause algae, weed growth and stagnation. The water becomes much clearer and cleaner when air, diffused into tiny bubbles and transported by tube, is continuously pumped to the bottom of a pond or dugout. In this effort, windmill aerators, powered by wind as light as 3 to 5 mph, were originally developed for farm pond use when running electricity out to ponds was found to be too expensive.
Another reason for the popularity of windmill aerators is their durability. While advanced windmills have only three moving parts and will last decades, electrical aeration devices have motors and generally die out in a few years after constant use. In addition, environmentally friendly windmills reduce the need for costly electric power or pollution-emitting fossil fuels.
Hanson put in two Koenders windmill aerators in lagoon number one, and they have met all EPA discharge requirements. He recently ordered two more. Since each unit aerates about 2.5 acres of open water, according to Hanson, adding about a half dozen more, as his budget allows, will offer full aeration of Montpelier’s 21 acres of wastewater lagoon.
“With renewable wind power, it costs nothing to aerate the lagoon,” said Hanson. “There’s virtually no maintenance, basically just greasing once a year. Over a decade, the wind powered aerators could save us hundreds of thousands of dollars compared to electric aeration.”
Generating Energy throughout Communities and Schools
When Sault College recently installed a 35 kWh Endurance wind turbine on-campus, they became the first college in Sault Ste. Marie, Canada to power their Student Life Center using renewable energy, while offering exciting hands-on learning opportunities.
As a learning tool, the turbine is its own classroom. Ironworker apprentices lower the tower as required; civil engineering technicians inspect the tower annually; and mechanical and electrical students learn how to maintain the turbine. Even the process automation students get involved, creating a system to analyze data and show how much power the turbine is producing.
“Because the turbine is essentially a scaled down version of large megawatt units, students get practical hands-on experience they can’t get from a book,” said Colin Kirkwood, dean of Sault College’s School of the Natural Environment, Technology and Skilled Trades. “Despite generating about 50,000 kWh of electrical power in a little over a year, “the turbine is quieter than rustling leaves and a good fit for our residential area.”
The college’s Applied Research Center will also offer applied research with the turbine to companies looking to enter the wind energy market. “The turbine underlines our commitment to build a better environment,” said Trevor Rising, P.E., Sault College’s supervisor of Maintenance and Construction. “It not only changed our skyline, it changed our way of thinking.”
In the United States, schools and technology centers are also taking advantage of wind-powered opportunities. For instance, the Autry Technology Center in Enid, Oklahoma, selected a Model S-250 wind turbine by Endurance Wind Power.
“We chose the Endurance turbine as an economical opportunity to start generating our own power and provide students an actual working model for educational purposes,” said Dr. Marcie Mack, assistant superintendent of Autry, which is part of the Oklahoma Career and Technology Education system.
“The wind turbine creates an awareness of the wind industry in our community,” said Mack. “Other benefits to our facility are its safety features, quiet mode of operation, and its ability to connect directly to our power source.”
