Ropin’ the wind: Harnessing wind far from sure bet in Northwest Arkansas
Posted on Monday, December 1, 2008
BROOKE McNEELY Northwest Arkansas Times Stephan Pollard stands in front of the wind turbines at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Springdale. He has a doctorate in environmental dynamics and works with the church to conduct research involving the turbines to estimate the amount of wind resource at the site.
Seizing the power of wind and using it as an alternative energy source is a concept that has yet to “arrive” in Washington County, but a few people want to see about the possibilities.
A Chicago-based energy company is interested in building two test towers in south Washington County to determine if there is enough wind to build power-generating turbines.
The company will seek a conditional-use permit at the Jan. 8 Washington County Planning Board meeting for the test towers, said Washington County Planning Director Juliet Richey.
The test towers are each a little less than 200 feet in height, Richey said.
She stressed that these would be meteorological towers, not wind turbines.
They are being developed by Invenergy and would sit on a ridge east of Winslow and north of Sunset Road in the southern part of the county.
“They’re basically going to be reviewed like cell towers,” Richey said of the process at the January Planning Board meeting.
If approved, they will collect data about wind speed for up to three years.
The county planning department found out about the company’s desire to perform commercial testing of wind power about a month ago, Richey said.
“We had some other people in the area interested in wind power,” she said. “They talked to us about it three or four months ago.”
Those were simply people inquiring about what would happen if turbines became an issue, she said.
While Justice of the Peace Steve Zega, chairman of the Quorum Court Energy Committee, says he has not seen the company’s plan, his initial reaction — if there is not any resistance from surrounding property owners — is it probably would be a good idea.
“I think we need to be looking at developing alternative energy in general, and wind is one of the best that I’m aware of,” he said.
“It has some drawbacks, but in general it’s a very good alternative energy source.”
To prepare for the possible location of turbines — depending on the test data — Richey says her office is researching wind farms. Richey, Courtney McNair, a planner in her office, and Robyn Reed, county environmental affairs director, plan to attend a wind energy conference Tuesday and Wednesday in Oklahoma City. They also plan to visit some working turbines after the first of the year.
“We’re trying to educate ourselves to find out what the real issues are,” Richey said. Noise is a possible issue — whether it is the “whooshing” sound caused by the turbines or a vibration noise Richey has heard about.
How it works
Wind power converts energy to electricity using turbines. There are big commercial wind farm operations as well as individual turbines for personal or small-business use. Wind power’s impact in Northwest Arkansas is a question for some.
“From what we’ve seen, there is not a lot of potential in Northwest Arkansas until we get technology to do more generation with less wind speed,” said Washington County Justice of the Peace Micah Neal, who serves as vice chairman of the Quorum Court Energy Committee.
Neal, Zega, Justice of the Peace Butch Pond, County Administrator John Gibson and county Grants Administrator Wayne Blankenship attended a conference on wind power earlier this year at the University of Arkansas—Fort Smith.
“Northwest Arkansas is marginal on what wind can do,” Neal said.
“I’m all for it, if they can get it to work,” he said. “There’s not a lot of areas. They’re going to have to be on top of some ridges. There’s not a lot of area to work with from what we saw.”
Richey says she is a bit surprised that wind farms are being discussed in this area.
But, she said, while wind here is considered marginal when reviewing wind maps, there may be sites within the area, such as peaks, that are viable.
“I think there are isolated places,” she said.
Possible county regulations
What has been talked about for an ordinance regulating turbines, Richey said, is having people adjacent to the turbines sign a waiver if they wish; if not, there would have to be some parameters, such as distance requirements to protect neighbors’ property.
Height involved makes wind farms similar to cell towers in that “fall zones are considered; one can imagine the damage a 400-foot tower falling could cause. Another aspect that could drive location requirements is noise — if it is a real issue, Richey said.
In addition, she said, when and if officials set up “one of these wind farms, we want to make sure that the county roads are protected.”
She also talked about a possible abandonment clause to make sure someone is responsible for razing the farms once they are no longer in use. She said the county planning department is “just trying to take a real commonsense approach to making sure things are done well for people who want to do them and also the other people who live in the county.”
Individual wind power use
A local church and business owner are among area people interested in the wind’s power. St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Springdale began looking at its merits three years ago. Stephan Pollard, who holds a doctorate in environmental dynamics from the University of Arkansas, helped guide the project. He is also chief operating officer of Trem|Wel Energy, a limited liability company in Fayetteville.
With the help of some grant money from the Diocese of Arkansas and support from individuals, the church has a three-turbine wind farm. The turbines were erected in April.
“Right now, any of the issues with the turbines that come up, I pretty much oversee it all and take care of it,” said Pollard, who attends the church.
The effort was introduced by former rector, the Rev. Dr. Steve Thomason, who is now medical director of the Circle of Life Hospice in Springdale.
Research into wind power involved determining the expected production from the turbines — given an estimated amount of wind resources at the site.
Construction of the turbines took about three days, Pollard said. The cost was $42,000.
There was one turbine inoperative for several months, Pollard said, and it has been replaced. Another one was replaced earlier, he said, and a third turbine has performed well from the get-go.
“All three of them are going strong,” he said.
The turbines provide a small amount of the electrical consumption needs of the church, he said, but it is too early to notice the tangible benefit.
It is time to look at the numbers, he said, as wind picks up this time of year.
He says wind power is clean and it’s renewable and, furthermore, “it doesn’t use the millions of gallons of water that a coal-fired power plant or a nuclear power plant use. There’s almost zero carbon dioxide emissions associated with wind energy.”
He said the turbines are a way to “send a message to the community that it’s time we start looking at alternative energy sources.”
Rudy Timmerman, project operations manager for Delta Group Electronics in Prairie Grove, has been using a wind turbine for his business since 2002.
“We have a one kilowatt turbine, substantially smaller than industrial, but it was still pretty big at the time we put it up in 2002,” he said.
The turbine connected to his building, he said, is hooked up to an Ozarks Electric Cooperative Corp. grid.
“Our building is going to absorb all of the electricity from the turbine and, then, any extra electricity that we don’t use will go into the grid,” he said.
So on a day when there is not enough wind, he said, “we’ll pull from the grid and use it. If we end up pulling more than we produce, then we just pay for that difference.”
The amount is calculated monthly.
He said his building always uses a lot of electricity because of its electronic equipment.
“We’re saving money,” he said. “Where the money is saved, is we don’t have to buy that electricity that we pulled from the grid.”
Instead of the bill being $3,000, he said, it may be $2,500, saving about $500 per month.
“I would say it’s experimental, and there’s probably better ways to save money other than wind power. But it was something we wanted to try and we were interested in,” he said. “And it will have a payback, but the paybacks probably are going to be in 15 years or something.”
The business is an electronic design and manufacturing facility, so the turbine is also “somewhat of a conversation piece,” he said.
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