Consider Wind Turbines

Renewable energy. In an age of oil spills and mine disasters of epic proportions, it's a term that's garnering more and more attention every day. This is good news for Windspire Technologies, a Reno, NV-based company that manufactures wind turbines made in Michigan in an old auto parts plant, employing former auto workers (www.windspireenergy.com).

Windspire turbines are unique in that they run on a vertical axis system, standing only 30 feet tall and 4 feet wide. "It's a thin profile so you're able to scale up easily," says Amy Berry, director of marketing for Windspire. "So we have a lot of customers who will put in as many as they need to meet their energy demands." Residential customers, for example, will install one or two, while larger, corporate customers might have 20 or 25.

In addition to their unique appearance, Windspire turbines operate silently, which is very important to a lot of customers, Berry says. "They don't want to hear a whirring noise, and their neighbors don't want to hear a whirring noise, either."

Harnessing Wind Power

Hunt Country Vineyards in Branchport, NY, is just one grower who has signed on with Windspire to install a wind turbine. Owner Art Hunt says his daughter, who owns a renewable energy company in Washington, DC, first introduced him to the concept.

Right now, Hunt has only one Windspire turbine on his property but says it's an excellent demonstrator to illustrate how easy it is to use renewable energy. "The Windspire convertor generates electricity whenever the wind blows more than about 6 or 7 miles per hour, and the power tops out at 20 miles per hour," Hunt says. It then converts the electricity right from the generator to power coming down a wire, which then flows into the vineyard's wiring system. If there's a power outage, the system senses that and stops producing electricity, Hunt adds. "But it also is very sophisticated in that I can attach a dongle modem to my laptop and it'll download its current performance and accumulative performance with the wind speed — all the parameters — wirelessly from my laptop." On windy days, Hunt says he likes to leave his laptop open to allow customers to see the turbine's performance.

He adds, too, that a wind turbine can be just one piece of the puzzle, and that multiple renewable energy sources can complement each other. If you have solar panels, for example, they'll generate more power during the summer months. During the winter when you have less sunshine and more wind, the turbine can kick in.

Before Investing

Both Hunt and Berry agree that before investing in a wind turbine, it's important to determine how much wind potential you have on your site. "It's great to put a wind turbine up and see it spin, but if you don't have enough wind energy or speed, you're not going to be able to generate energy, so it wouldn't be worth it," Berry says. She adds that Windspire's dealers will visit sites beforehand and assess them to help potential customers understand what their wind resource is, and which is the best spot on the property to place a turbine.

Hunt notes that doing your homework before investing is paramount. "Make sure you're dealing with a good company and with a dependable wind turbine, and then do the math to figure out what your expected payback would be," he says. "But keep in mind, once you buy a turbine or any renewable energy device, for the next 20 or 25 years, electricity rates can go up and down, but you've pegged your price. The more the power rates go up, the faster your payback is."

Tp determine the wind resource potential in your area, visit www.windpoweringamerica.gov/wind_maps.asp for an interactive, countrywide map.