Green Options

While we selected one of the best-selling residential wind turbines in the US, a 10kW (kilowatt) rated machine built in Norman, Oklahoma by Bergey Windpower Co., there’s still wear and tear common among any machines, especially those that have to stand up to the increasingly severe storms and harsh four seasons in Wisconsin. Now the nation’s leading small wind turbine manufacturer with installations in all fifty states and 100 countries, Bergey Windpower Co. manufactured our entire 10kW Bergey GridTek system that includes our generator and inverter system components.  But parts still wear out; items need replacing.

We installed our grid-tied 10kW Bergey Excel in May, 2003, and — other than a blade switch-out in 2005 to boost production (which it did by more than 30 percent) — we’ve encountered no mechanical or electronic failures or issues. It’s a testament to how reliable some of the wind turbines and inverters have become. Since its installation, we’ve already generated over 48,000 kWhs (kilowatt hours) of renewable energy, presently averaging about 10,000 kWhs/year. Yep, our utility, Alliant Energy, then buys our surplus electricity back from us (it amounts to about $400 a year). According to calculations at Bergey Windpower Co., our 10 kW Bergey GridTek system will offset approximately 1.2 tons of air pollutants and 250 tons of greenhouse gases over its 30-year operating life.

This past September, we hired Kettle View Renewable Energy LLC to complete the replacement of leading-edge tape on each of the blades, tape which was pealing back or slid off altogether. The leading-edge tape helps protect the perfectly balanced fiber reinforced plastic blades — offering about twice the strength of low carbon steel. These Bergey Excel blades have a swept area diameter of 23 feet. Kettle View Renewable Energy, LLC is one of the hundreds of new companies that have started to meet the growing need of servicing renewable energy systems, completing renewable energy site assessments, grant writing and system installations.

Tired of your increasing electric bills?  Want to change your relationship with energy, making your own, renewable, local power while doing your part to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and lessening the impacts of climate change?

Read no further than Power from the Wind: A practical guide to small-scale energy production (New Society), by prolific writer and sustainable living practitioner Dan Chiras, with contributions by Mick Sagrillo and Ian Woofenden.  This book helps you assess your energy needs, your site’s wind energy potential, and sort out every aspect of the design, purchase and installation of a small-scale, or residential, wind system.  Amazingly, it does so without demanding that you be some technical tinkerer or electrical engineer.

A big part of sustainability is being able to meet some or all of your energy needs, yourself, with renewable energy if you’re fortunate enough to live in a place where it’s windy.  The timing couldn’t be better for the release of their authoritative book as millions of dollars in state and federal funding support or tax incentives are being made available for homeowners and businesses to install such systems.

They have been around for centuries, but they are quickly becoming the darlings of the eco-friendlies and clean energy nuts. Windmills, or in this case, wind energy generators, come in all shapes and sizes.