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small wind Success StoriesCustomer Interviews Toronto, CANADA - When Gard Shelley and his wife visit their cottage in the 30,000 Islands area of Georgian Bay, they are able to enjoy the comforts of home thanks to a combination of wind and solar power. Stretching for a hundred miles along the northeastern side of Lake Huron, Georgian Bay is ringed with small islands, a landscape of pink granite and trees. But it costs a lot for Toronto Hydroelectric to run cables to the outer islands. Shelley estimates that he would have had to pay a $60,000 (US) installation fee just to connect to the utility's electric grid, which would have required running a cable about a mile underwater from the mainland. By contrast, his Southwest Windpower H1500 cost only about $10,000 to purchase in 1996. Shelley hired a local contractor to install the 1.5 kW turbine on a 24-foot tower, but found himself helping out so much with the installation that when a neighbor said, "hey, do that for me!" he decided to make it a sideline to his business. He estimates that he has since helped to install 15-20 windmills in the Georgian Bay area, and perhaps as many as 75-100 in eastern Canada. Because it is a stand-alone system, Shelley's installation did not require negotiating an interconnection agreement or other arrangements from his utility. Nor did it require any special permitting. The base of the 24-foot tower is about 10 feet above water level, out on a point, completely exposed to the prevailing west wind. Shelley and his wife use their Georgian Bay cottage from May to late October. They typically use 4-5 kWh/day when they are in residence, and about 1.5 kWh/day (to run a refrigerator) when they are not there. Shelley can count on the windmill to generate anywhere from 0-20 kWh of electricity per day, about 6 kWh/day on average. A complementary solar energy system provides another .75 kWh/day on average. The hybrid system uses a 20 kWh battery bank to ensure that power is there as needed. The system requires very little maintenance. In addition to avoiding the substantial cost of connecting to the Toronto Hydroelectric grid, Shelley estimates that the system saves him another $1,000/year in electricity bills.
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