Stanford farmer dedicates wind turbine – New emphasis on wind power in Montana

Jess Alger expects the wind turbine on his Stanford ranch to produce enough electricity to heat his house, barn and other buildings, as well as keep the lights on.

By MIKE DENNISON
Tribune Capitol Bureau

STANFORD — As Stanford-area farmer Jess Alger checked his wind-power log Tuesday, he pointed to the totals from the previous day: 75 kilowatt hours, or three times the power he used at the farm.

"I think that was the best day I’ve had," he said, looking up at the month-old turbine atop a 100-foot tower on his property.

"I never thought I’d be wishing for the wind to blow," he said. "This way, when the wind’s blowing, you’re happy — and when it’s not, it’s not too bad either."

Alger, who farms and runs cattle north of Stanford, is one of three Montanans participating in a program that is helping set up small, independent wind turbines in the Northwest.

On Tuesday, people who worked on the project gathered at Alger’s farm for a "dedication" of the new 10-kilowatt turbine.

"The idea is to prove that small wind (power projects) are economical for our rural communities," said Sarah Peterson, policy director of the Seattle-based Northwest Sustainable Energy for Economic Development (SEED).

Today, the same group will gather at Doug Nelson’s bison ranch near East Glacier Park to dedicate another turbine. The final Montana turbine will be operating at a maintenance shop in Chester.

Alger’s turbine went up Sept. 18, after two years of planning and mustering the funds. It’s expected to produce enough electricity to heat his ranch-house, barn and other buildings, as well as keep the lights on.

Any leftover power –and there should be some — goes back into NorthWestern Energy’s "grid" for distribution wherever it’s needed.

Alger said ultimately he’d like to set up a larger wind-power cooperative that can produce and market electricity to the surrounding area.

But for now, he’ll settle for the turbine that powers his own ranch.

"I just think clean energy is the way to go," he said.

The three Montana projects are the beneficiaries of Our Wind Cooperative, which plans to set up 10 separate small projects in the Pacific Northwest.

The co-op is the work of a half-dozen groups, including Northwest SEED. The groups helped Alger put together a package of loans and grants to finance the $50,000 project, Peterson said.

Two key participants in Montana are the National Center for Appropriate Technology in Butte, which provided a $12,500 grant, and the state Department of Environmental Quality, which provided money from its alternative energy revolving loan fund, created in 2001.

Alger was the fund’s first loan applicant, said Kathi Montgomery of DEQ. Alger estimated that the financing package allowed him to spend only a few thousand dollars of his own money to get the project going.

If the turbine produces the amount of power expected, he’ll save $1,200 a year on electricity costs.

Alger said he began applying for grants in January 2002, but that it didn’t come together until this year, when he heard from Northwest SEED. He had contacted the group a year earlier but hadn’t heard anything until they called and asked if he wanted to participate in the co-op.

The turbine and its 11-foot blades are expected to produce about 18,000 kilowatt hours of power each year — about 400 kwh more than his ranch consume in an average year.

Through a process called "net metering," NorthWestern Energy provides back-up power for Alger and accepts any excess power he produces. The power is credited toward what he uses from NorthWestern — a power exchange, essentially.

If the turbine produces more power than Alger uses, he pays only his monthly meter charge of $4.60. NorthWestern gets to keep the excess, without paying for it.

Dave Ryan, NorthWestern energy’s renewable energy program coordinator, said the Alger project is one of about 170 customers who have net-metering in Montana. All are small wind- or solar-power projects that use NorthWestern’s system as a backup and contribute excess power into the grid.

NorthWestern’s total gain from the net-metering is less than half a megawatt on a statewide system that ranges from 650 to 1,200 megawatts, Ryan said.

Alger said he doesn’t mind giving away the extra power he generates, since the project will reduce his own electricity costs to a mere $55 a year.

"It’ll be nice not to have a power bill," he said. "Now, I just have to figure out how to get rid of my monthly telephone bill."

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/news/stories/20031015/localnews/454905.html

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New emphasis on wind power

By Tim Leeds/Havre Daily News/[email protected]

Modern wind turbines are springing up in Montana, helping people, organizations and governments offset their electrical bills.

Jess Alger, who farms and ranches north of Stanford, is holding an open house today to dedicate a wind turbine he is using. Bison rancher Doug Nelson is holding an open house Wednesday to dedicate a wind turbine on his ranch near East Glacier. Our Wind Cooperative, based in Washington state, helped the ranchers get their turbines running.

Alger said last week his turbine is earning him a credit on his electric bill.

"It’s running right now. It seems to be going good," he said. "The meter’s running backward. That’s what I like to see."

Liberty County also is joining the co-op, and will install a turbine to power a county shop soon. Liberty County Commissioner Don Marble said it took a lot of research and paperwork to get the project going, but he thinks it was worth it.

"We’re pretty excited about it," Marble said. "It’s quite a bit of work for what you get out of it, but it’s a start. It’s a demonstration project."

Climate Solutions of Olympia, Wash., and Northwest SEED, based in Seattle, are primary organizers of Our Wind Cooperative.

Climate Solutions outreach coordinator Peter Moulton said its efforts so far to set up turbines is just a beginning, and Our Wind Co-op will probably look at expanding membership and helping members install larger turbines in the future.

"This is just a model program, just to see what hurdles we have to go through," he said.

People who are close enough to a power grid, such as the grid used by NorthWestern Energy in Montana, may be able to send excess power generated back into the grid, receiving a credit from their power company. Moulton said if enough excess is generated, it could be sold back to the company, but that is a complex process requiring additional agreements with the company.

Dennis McElwrath, superintendent of Anchor Academy north of Havre, said the academy is doing just that. The academy has installed two large turbines to offset its power costs, and is negotiating to sell any excess it produces to Basin Electric Power Cooperative, he said. The main purpose, he added, was to reduce the academy’s bill, not make a profit.

One of the turbines was struck by lightning this summer, and its blades – each about 27 feet long – must be replaced. The turbines each save the academy about $500 a month when they are running, McElwrath said.

Other people and organizations in the area are looking into using wind turbines to offset their power bills, including Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation. Roger St. Pierre of the Rocky Boy Housing Authority said the Chippewa Cree government is examining the idea.

Thom Wallace of Northwest SEED said the Liberty County turbine will be the fourth that Our Wind Co-op has helped to install. The co-op is working on five others in Washington and Oregon, and has been contacted by hundreds of people and organizations interested in small-scale turbines, he said.

One of the goals of the cooperative is to provide information for people who want to see if wind turbines are right for them, and also to help find and provide funding, Wallace said. One of Our Wind Co-op’s goals is to create a revolving fund to provide low-interest loans to buy turbines.

Moulton said financing is one of the main obstacles for many people.

"You can pencil out how long it will take to pay for itself, but you still need the initial capital," he said.

"Small Wind Electric Systems," a publication of the U.S. Department of Energy, said a typical residential system costs from $13,000 to $40,000.

The director of the North American Rural Futures Institute said said more and more opportunities are rising for people interested in harvesting wind, including low-interest loans, loan guarantees and grants provided for ag producers by the 2002 farm bill.

NARFI director Timlynn Babitsky said other private organizations and federal and state agencies, like the U.S. Department of Energy and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, also offer financial help in researching and installing wind turbines.

It takes a lot of work to research the wind potential and find the best location for a turbine, she said. But, she added, there are many resources to help people find out.

She said that as windy as Montana is, wind turbines are of great interest to the institute. Havre-based NARFI was established to research and implement ways to preserve and improve life in rural America.

"It’s just a really good thing for ranchers, farmers and towns," said Babitsky, adding that wind power could provide jobs and increase the local tax base at the same time.

In other states, like Minnesota and Iowa, wind energy is considered a second cash crop by some ag producers, she said.

The wind available in Montana eventually could translate into major economic development, Babitsky said. The electricity shortage on the West Coast in 2001 illustrates the possibilities to export, she said.

"With California crying for energy, it’s a huge means of revenue," she said.

"Wind power is becoming a very hot topic in Montana," Babitsky added.

Secretary of State Bob Brown sponsored a bus tour earlier this year to look at alternative energy for Montana, including wind energy.

Brown said today that he became interested in wind energy when he looked into its possible use on state trust land.

"In the process of meeting the nation’s energy needs, it occurred to me that the state and the state trust lands could help in that," he said. "It’s a real opportunity for Montana and an opportunity for rural Montana."

NARFI sponsored Kristie Smith of Havre to take the tour, and U.S. Bank president Shaud Schwarzbach represented Bear Paw Development Corp.

Schwarzbach said the tour stressed the potential much of Montana has for providing wind power. It would be especially helpful for people with higher-than-average electricity usage, like farmers and ranchers, he said.

"It’s a wide and untapped resource, really," Schwarzbach said. "To offset their expense, it would be great."

On the Net: Our Wind Co-op: http://www.ourwind.org

North American Rural Futures Institute wind power links: narfi.org/resources/Rural_Futures/Energy/Wind_Power/

http://www.havredailynews.com/articles/2003/10/14/local_headlines/windpower.txt