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November 11, 2009

Le Sueur putting wind energy to the test

City hopes to understand cost-effectiveness, practicality

By Brian Ojanpa

LE SUEUR — The city of Le Sueur is tilting at windmills, but unlike what that idiom stands for, it’s not intended to represent an unwinnable battle.

While the 120-foot wind turbine in the city’s industrial park will produce only a token amount of electricity, its presence symbolizes the quest for alternative power-generating modes of the future.

“We just wanted to make a statement that we’re behind this,” city electric utility director Greg Drent said of a cooperative venture to erect turbines in 11 Minnesota cities.

Le Sueur and other member cities of the Minnesota Municipal Power Agency are participating in what could be described as a show-and-tell public relations initiative on renewable energy.

The power cooperative purchased the refurbished windmills from Palm Springs, Calif., for $300,000 each. All are expected to be producing power by year’s end.

Drent said Le Sueur’s should be operational by Thanksgiving, and though it will only produce enough to power about 18 homes, it also will serve as a testing ground to gauge its practicality and cost-effectiveness.

“It’s kind of a pilot project to see if the numbers work” for private-sector use, Drent said.

He said wind turbines may someday be used on-site to power businesses and private properties, provided they can deliver five-year paybacks. Right now that’s not viable, he said.

“That’s one of the challenges of wind power — that they don’t show returns as fast as some other investments.”

The city of Arlington also has a wind turbine set to operate in its industrial park.

“It’s kind of a show on our stance with wind power and green energy,” City Administrator Matt Jaunich said.

He said the turbine installations also help cities comply with a state mandate requiring most utilities to produce at least 12 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2012, and 25 percent by 2025.

The turbines begin producing electricity when wind speed reaches 8 mph, and automatically shut off to prevent blade damage when winds reach 30 mph.

The 160-kilowatt windmills are much shorter than the 1- and 2-megawatt turbines on wind farms that have drawn complaints about noise, vibration and flickering blade shadows.

A downside to turbines, in addition to dependence on adequate winds, is that the electricity they produce can’t be effectively stored.

“But if they could find a way to store the energy, it could change the electric industry beyond belief,” Drent said.

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