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SEPTEMBER, 2003 WIND POWER LIGHTS UP
Why are the benefits of this pollution-free, fuel-free domestic resource limited to these few schools in Iowa? The school districts are unique because they are in windy areas and because they had the foresight to investigate and take a risk on a large investment with a six-to-10-year payback period. Iowa also has Tom Wind, the engineering consultant that provided technical assistance to all of these projects. However, there is no reason why schools in windy areas across the country couldn’t be saving money and pollution, as well as increasing the reliability of the electricity system in remote areas. Building on the momentum started in Iowa, kids in a future September starting back to school could look on their community’s wind turbine just as they see water towers—an important and normal part of the infrastructure of the community. Spirit Lake Spirit Lake School District was the pioneer in the U.S. In 1993, with some help from a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, it installed its first wind turbine, a 250-kW Wind World. In addition to the grant, the project was funded by a low interest loan through the Energy Council of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, which was paid back in 1998 from savings on the electrical costs. In 2001, the school took the next step and installed a state-of-the-art 750-kW NEG Micon turbine. It is expected to produce five times the amount of electricity as the first one, due to its bigger size and greater efficiency. The school is expecting its second turbine to provide all the electricity needs for the district's middle school, high school, vo-tech, district offices, maintenance building, football field, and baseball and softball fields. With the savings that it generates, the school expects it to pay for itself in less than seven years. To produce an equivalent amount of electricity, 882 tons of coal or 3,107 barrels of oil would be required annually. Each year, this turbine will prevent 1,500 tons of carbon dioxide—a major global warming gas—from being emitted. Beginning in the year 2007, when both turbines have been paid for, the district counts on having about $120,000 in savings and income annually to use to improve education for the children of the Spirit Lake Community School District. Production data from the school’s two turbines and installation photos are available on the Spirit Lake School District Web site at http://www.spirit-lake.k12.ia.us/dist/bg/building.htm . Forest City The wind turbine in Forest City started as a student physics project. After the students collected wind data for a year with an anemometer on top of the town’s water tower, they concluded that the wind speed was high enough to make a wind turbine economically attractive. The board authorized the school to continue with the project as well as to conduct an energy audit to reduce the amount of energy the school wasted. The school completed installation of its 600-kW Nordex wind turbine in 1999. The school estimates that the turbine will pay for itself within nine to 13 years. Once the loan is paid off, the turbine is expected to save the school up to $50,000 per year. In 2002, the turbine reduced the school’s annual electricity bill from about $76,500 to $12,200, in effect providing 84% of the school's electricity needs. Good production numbers and graphics are available on the school’s Web site at http://www.forestcity.k12.ia.us/Pages/Windturbine/Turbine_Index_Page_v1.html . Eldora-New Providence The Eldora-New Providence School in Iowa installed a 750-kW NEG Micon wind turbine in 2002. Bill Grove, superintendent at Eldora-New Providence, reported that during the 10-year life of the loan, he expects the school to save $10,000 to $20,000. As soon as the turbine is paid off, the school's savings could increase tenfold. The turbine is expected to produce approximately 1.5 million kWh per year. Since the school uses a little less than 1 million kWh, it expects the excess power to bring in money that can be used for educational programs. Tom Wind expects the project to pay for itself in approximately seven years. According to Wind's analysis, the school can expect to earn a return on its investment of 13%. Grove pointed out that the electricity the school will get from the wind turbine is "inflation proof," so if the cost of electricity rises, savings to the school compared to what it would have paid for retail electricity will be even greater. Wind said that the reason school projects are happening in Iowa is that the economics work and the schools can turn to a state government program that can provide them with the confidence that their forays into electricity generation are reliable. In terms of the financing, many of the schools receive some income from a federal program called the Renewable Energy Production Incentive (REPI), a fund that was designed to incentivize public entities that are not eligible for the federal wind energy production tax credit. Payments from REPI are uncertain, however, because the fund relies on annual Congressional appropriations. More important to the economics of a project is a fair price for the electricity the turbine produces. In many of the successful schools cases, the local utility “net meters” the output, which means that in months when the turbine produces more than the school uses, the value of the excess is banked with the utility to offset bills when the school needs more than the turbine produces. However, Wind says that only Iowa and Ohio currently allow net metering without a size limitation on the turbine. MidAmerican Utility in Iowa has successfully applied to the Iowa Utilities Board to limit the capacity for net metering in its service territory to 500-kW, and other utilities are following suit. In lieu of net metering for large turbines, Wind said that higher buy-back rates for non-profit entities could be a solution. Wind spoke highly of the Iowa Energy Bank, a state program that provides schools interested in taking advantage of their wind resource a “one-stop shop” for answers on where to go for engineering services. This expert working for the state serves to provide the schools with confidence that their long-term investment will provide the kind of electricity they are expecting. The state of Iowa offers a number of incentives for developing renewable energy projects. More information is available on the Web site at http://www.state.ia.us/dnr/energy/MAIN/renewable/incentives.html. In addition to the three projects above, five other schools in Iowa have wind turbines in operation near their campuses: Sentral School in Fenton has a 65-kW Windmatic turbine, Nevada High School in Story County has one 250-kW Wind World turbine; Clay Central/Everly Community School District in Royal has a 95-kW turbine; Akron-Westfield installed a 600-kW Vestas turbine in 1999; and Clarion-Goldfield High School in Wright County installed a 50-kW AOC turbine in 2002. For more information about installing wind turbines at schools, contact Tom Wind, at Wind Utility Consulting, phone (515) 386-3405, or e-mail tomwind@netins.net. |
©
2003 by the American Wind Energy Association. |
n September,
kids across the country headed back to school. In a handful of communities
in Iowa, the students are returning to classrooms where much of the
electricity will come from wind power, saving the school money that can be
used for educational purposes, and saving the community the pollution that
would have been created as a by-product of conventional electricity
generation.