Farm in win-wind situation

Energy: Dull sharp on testing wind turbines as electricity source

By John Nolan
Sunday, October 2, 2005
Dayton Daily News

BROOKVILLE | There are high hopes for the six wind turbines perched atop 120-foot towers at the Dull Homestead farm.

Ralph Dull, 76, who has spent much of his life at the farm and still helps his three sons operate it, championed the wind turbines as a way of reducing dependence on petroleum, promoting renewable energy and cutting the farm's electricity bill. He is also intrigued by solar energy technology and hopes to soon start burning hydrogen, rather than diesel fuel or gasoline, in at least some of the farm's vehicles.

The wind turbines, which can generate up to 10 kilowatts apiece and have 12-foot blades, were hooked up four months ago. At peak generation, they could serve almost half of the farm's electricity needs to power livestock barns, the family house, ventilating systems and water pumping equipment.

Dull is looking forward to seeing what the turbines can do over a year's time, since the wind can vary from season to season.

"My family is interested also, except the one son. He's the skeptic," Dull said. "He says we're too far south for wind and we're too far north for solar. But I think we're going to prove him wrong."

The city of Bowling Green's municipal utility started up a commercial-sized wind farm with two 1.8 megawatt turbines in 2003, adding two more in 2004. That triggered substantial interest for wind power in Ohio, where wind farm development has lagged behind the development in other states, Canada and Europe.

The Spanish wind-energy company Gamesa Corp. has been a big player in the U.S. development. It has 63 turbines of 800-kilowatt generating capacity each operating at the Mendota Hills wind farm that began operating in November 2003 in north-central Illinois, near Mendota. The project generates about 125 million kilowatt-hours of electricity every year, enough to power 10,000 to 12,000 homes.

It produces power sold to a utility, which distributes it over the utility's grid. Developers of wind farms prize sites on wind-swept, flat land or atop hills or ridges, and located near power transmission lines.

The developers lease locations from landowners for year-long tests to determine the frequency and consistency of prevailing winds. If the site is judged suitable, a developer will typically work out 20-year leases with willing landowners. It can take two to three years to get a wind farm up and running.

Wind farms are operating in Minnesota, North Dakota, California and Pennsylvania. There are four running in Pennsylvania, which hopes to have three more in operation by year's end.

That grates on Bill Spratley, executive director of Green Energy Ohio, a Columbus-based organization which promotes alternative energy sources and did the feasibility testing for the Bowling Green wind farm.

Ohio is losing jobs and business to other states and foreign countries, Spratley said during a workshop his organization hosted last week at the Dull farm.

Ohio manufacturers including Timken Co., Parker Hannifin Corp. and Lubrizol Corp. all make parts or lubricants sold for use in the other areas where wind farms are being developed, Spratley said.

Tim Vought, a project developer from Gamesa's U.S. operation based in Philadelphia, visited the Dull farm for the Green Energy Ohio event and chatted with other farmers there about the prospects of developing commercial wind farms in Ohio.

Vought said there is interest in Ohio sites, but he declined to say where Gamesa will develop wind farms. Spratley said, however, that Gamesa is involved with plans to establish a wind farm near Bellefontaine in Logan County. There are also initial discussions about building one at Arcanum in Darke County, Spratley said.

A map on display during the workshop at the Dull farm highlighted Ohio regions with the most favorable prevailing wind patterns. The map showed that west-central and northwest Ohio, along with the Lake Erie coast, offer the wind farm sites with the greatest commercial potential.

Not everybody thinks wind farms are a good idea. Residents in England and elsewhere have complained that they are eyesores dropped into otherwise picturesque regions.

Environmentalists and wildlife authorities are concerned that the blades of wind turbines can kill birds and bats. For that reason, activists in California have persuaded officials there to curtail operation of some Altamont Pass wind turbines in Alameda County, near San Francisco, at times of the year when migrating birds fly through.

Ohio authorities have raised similar concerns to discourage location of wind turbines either along Lake Erie or within three miles of its shore, Spratley said.

Ralph Dull said it cost $210,000 for his farm's six wind turbines. The Ohio Department of Development provided a $50,000 grant toward the project and helped Dull to obtain a bank loan for the remainder at 4 percent interest, he said.

Ohio farmers inspired by the Bowling Green project are interested in developing wind turbine projects, either by leasing land to the developers or developing the projects themselves as owners who would share in the revenues, said Mike Pullins, executive director of the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation's development subsidiary.

The revenue from the projects and the prospect of reducing energy bills are appealing, especially as energy prices keep increasing, Pullins said.

"Farmers realize, just as well as everyone, that the time is right for some of these initiatives," he said.

Contact John Nolan at (937) 225-2242.