By: ftguy on 10/17/09
Editor Jaci,
Could you find out some answers to these questions that where not in the article:
1) What is the total cost going to be on this project, including installation, and wiring into the exsisting grid.
2) Is this wind turbine going to save the energy users in this area ANY money, or does the construction cost outweigh the savings?
3) How long is this turbine expected to operate without any major maintainance, and does this figure into the cost analisys of the 20 year return figure?
4) How long is the turbine projected to last, period? Will it last the 20 return cycle?
5) How many birds is this turbine projected to kill in the next 20 years? (some windfarms in the western U.S. have estimates in the 10's of thousands per year)?

By: atlascollapsed on 10/17/09
I find the fact at the end "Produces energy at $50 a watt" a little alarming. Was that supposed to be a kilowatt or a megawatt perhaps? Seems pretty high.

I suppose it could be accounting for what electricity WILL cost if the cap and trade bill pasees though.

By: Fbodutchman on 10/17/09
The article says it reopened. Did it close at one time? Can somebody fill me in? This article seems pretty incomplete. Thanks!

By: dbaum on 10/17/09
Nothing like a large piece of government endorsed religion staring you in the face every time you drive north on 35. The placement of this singular wind turbine says it all. I can accept the wind farm idea as a plausible alternative to traditional power generation but the eyesore we have is nothing more that marketing and the promotion of "green" symbolism.

By: EditorJaci on 10/17/09
ftguy, I don't have those answers at the top of my head this weekend, but I'll get the reporter who wrote the story to answer them for you on Monday. Thanks for asking!

By: ftguy on 10/17/09
editor Jaci,
Look forward to the answers.
ikki,
If what you say is true, than imagine the waste of money to transfer all that power along the lines to some other community!

By: ftguy on 10/19/09
ikki,
do you perhaps work for the company?
and that still does not answer any of the question that i posed in my post. :-)
but thank you any way.

By: ftguy on 10/21/09
Editor Jaci, still waiting on the answers to my questions. Did you get to talk with the author of the story yet?

By: EditorJaci on 10/21/09
ftguy, I did speak to our intern, Kate Fine, on Monday. She was a little busy that day but began looking into your questions. I'm hoping she'll have your answers today. Thanks for your patience!

By: EditorJaci on 10/21/09
ftguy, here are your answers from Kate, our intern:

The operations manager and project manager I spoke to for the story didn't return messages left, but I did get a hold of construction engineer Mike White.

- What is the total cost of the project?
The cost Mike White quoted me for the article ($150,000) included construction and wiring into the grid.

- Will the turbine save local people money, or does the construction cost outweigh that?
White said again the turbine will take 20 years to pay for itself. Until then, yes, the cost does outweigh any monetary benefit.

- How long will the turbine operate without maintenance? Is that cost included in the construction cost?
"People who specialize in that will be handling that. Any rotating machine has a maintenance issue that goes on all the time," White said.
Avant will contract maintenance for the turbine, so no, that cost is not included. Bidding has not yet begun, so he would not estimate that cost other than to say it is "low" over a 20-year period. He estimated the turbine will need 20 hours of maintenance annually.

— How long will the turbine last?
White said the turbine would last 30-50 years, beyond the 20-year cycle.

— How many birds will the turbine kill?
There's a distinction between wind farms and a single turbine in this regard, as well as the small size of this specific turbine.
"Historically, with these turbines, the incidence of any bird mortality has been very small," project manager Dave Boyles said on the subject last week. He estimated fatalities at "one bird per turbine per year."
White, however, referred to his experience building more than 6,000 turbines in California alone and emphatically said, "we never killed any birds there." I pressed him on this repeatedly and he said he had never even heard about this risk until coming to Minnesota. I asked him if he had seen studies on this factor. He repeated "we never killed any birds there."

By: EditorJaci on 10/21/09
ftguy, David Boyles just called us back. He's the project manager. Here's his answer to your questions as he told them to Kate, our intern:
-What is the total cost of the project?

Project manager David Boyles said the $150,000 number White gave me initially could have just considered equipment. He said the total cost including construction and connecting to the grid is more like $300,000.

-Will the turbine save local people money, or does the construction cost outweigh that?

Boyles said people will still pay the same rate for electricity. After the turbine pays for itself, it will "theoretically" lower costs. But because the wind turbine itself contributes such a small percentage of the plant's total output, it's hard to estimate a concrete dollar amount.

-How long will the turbine operate without maintenance? Is that figured in to construction costs?

Boyles agreed with White on this matter.

-How long will the turbine last?

Boyles deferred to White on this matter.

-How many birds will the turbine kill?

Boyles confirmed his previous statement.

-As far as where the energy goes and who gets the energy, Boyles said the energy from the plant is routed into the region's transmission system (to which Faribault is connected) and distributed to that region.

- The "$50 a watt" number refers to megawatts-hours, the rate at which the plant produces power. Boyles said that cost is competitive with the costs incurred by other types of plants.

By: EditorJaci on 10/21/09
ftguy, David Boyles just called us back. He's the project manager. Here's his answer to your questions as he told them to Kate, our intern:
-What is the total cost of the project?

Project manager David Boyles said the $150,000 number White gave me initially could have just considered equipment. He said the total cost including construction and connecting to the grid is more like $300,000.

-Will the turbine save local people money, or does the construction cost outweigh that?

Boyles said people will still pay the same rate for electricity. After the turbine pays for itself, it will "theoretically" lower costs. But because the wind turbine itself contributes such a small percentage of the plant's total output, it's hard to estimate a concrete dollar amount.

-How long will the turbine operate without maintenance? Is that figured in to construction costs?

Boyles agreed with White on this matter.

-How long will the turbine last?

Boyles deferred to White on this matter.

-How many birds will the turbine kill?

Boyles confirmed his previous statement.

-As far as where the energy goes and who gets the energy, Boyles said the energy from the plant is routed into the region's transmission system (to which Faribault is connected) and distributed to that region.

- The "$50 a watt" number refers to megawatts-hours, the rate at which the plant produces power. Boyles said that cost is competitive with the costs incurred by other types of plants.

By: ftguy on 10/22/09
Thank You Jaci.
I would almost like to see a follow up article on this matter, just for the simple fact that people in this area of enegy production are always extollingthe virtues of how "cheap" this energy is. The fact as you can plainly see is quite the opposite. The 20 year figure has now been pushed out to 40+ years when you factor in even the little maintainence the tubine needs.
As far as te bird kill number go, I believe that, the way I understand it, the EPA levied a fine of over $200,000 to an oil company for killing off 76 sea birds in a small off shore oil spill. When digging in to this matter, the oil company found that there was a wind farm out west that had killed in excess of 20,000 birds in a 5 year period. If I remember right, that info. was from the EPA itself. The fine was mysteriously negated when the oil company threatened to go public with this information. That is probably why you had such a hard time getting an answer to your question in the first place, and from the way it sounds, more than one answer from the same man. From one per year, to never killing any. This last statement is ludicrous just for the simple fact that birds cannot predict the movement of the propellers, and therefor would not know to get out of the way!
A follow up on this story would be a good thing, just for the other side of the wind energy debate.

Thanx Jaci,
FtGuy

By: ftguy on 10/22/09
And on a side note, Jaci, if this wind turbine costs $300,000 dollars, plus main. costs to bring the equivelant of energy to just 40 homes, that's over $7500 per house. Wouldn't it be a little more prudent to spend that money on insulating that home and probably get the same result?