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small wind Success StoriesCase Studies Kansas Farm Logs more than 180,000 KWH with Bergey Excel For Paul Burmeister, a farmer in central Kansas, wind-generated electricity provides affordable and reliable energy for his home and farm. The kicker, he said in a telephone interview, is that wind power is good to the environment. "It generates no greenhouse gases, no radioactive waste, and no acid rain compounds," he explained, and his Bergey wind turbine has provided constant power to his home and farm for nearly 14 years. Since 1984, Burmeister has used a 10-kW Bergey EXCEL-S wind turbine to satisfy nearly all of the electricity requirements of his home and farm. The machine has generated about 183,000 kWh since August 1984 and has performed very reliably, with minimal repairs required over its lifetime. Burmeister has used some of that power, but has sold a large portion to his local electric cooperative, Midwest Energy, Inc. "I feel very good about the machine," he said. "I’m happy about the substantial power it has generated and the cooperation between Midwest Energy and myself." Burmeister believes that his wind turbine has helped Midwest Energy learn more about the benefits of wind power. The electricity generated by the turbine is measured by two electric meters installed on the Burmeister farm. One meter measures the amount of electricity Burmeister provides to the utility grid. The second meter keeps track of utility power that Burmeister uses when the wind turbine is not generating enough electricity to satisfy his needs (either during low-wind periods or times of exceptionally high demand by farm equipment). Midwest Energy technicians read the meters every month and track the difference between the two. At the end of the year, Midwest Energy pays about three cents for every kilowatt-hour it purchased from Burmeister over the past 12 months. Usually, that check amounts to several hundred dollars, he said. More than 80% of the electricity generated by the Bergey is surplus power which Burmeister sells to Midwest Energy. Before the wind turbine was installed, the farm averaged $50-$60 each month in electricity bills. Now, Burmeister said, his monthly bills often run as low as $5. The Burmeister family farm has depended on wind power for water pumping since the early 1900s. Burmeister’s interest in wind power was sparked during the 1950s, when he and his brother refurbished an old water-pumping wind mill and installed it at a well on the farm. His increasing concerns about environmental degradation and the nation’s over-dependence on fossil fuels led him to install the Bergey EXCEL in the mid-1980s. Burmeister’s farm is located near Claflin, Kansas, on the geographical divide between the Arkansas and Smoky Hills River watersheds. It is 28 miles from the Arkansas River. He explained that the farm is at a "fairly high elevation" with few trees and that it has useful winds year-round. The property is located in the northeast corner of Kansas’ high wind resource area. Burmeister did not install an anemometer at the site, but used wind maps and data from an existing anemometer located about 100 miles east of the farm and estimates that his annual average wind speed is about 13 mph.
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