Rural couple wants wind turbine

By Rod Rose/The Lebanon Reporter

Lebanon July 18, 2008 01:03 am

— While sprawling wind farms in Benton County are pumping power into Indiana’s electrical grid, Jeff and Melissa Gerard of rural Lebanon are thinking of generating power on a smaller scale.
They want to erect a wind turbine on a 100-foot tower near John Bart Road and County Road 150 South.
The BWC EXCEL turbines, first sold in 1983, have been installed in 900 locations, the company said. The Gerards plan to buy a used model.
“This won’t be enough to meet half of my electric bill,” Gerard said. But she wants to encourage wind power in Boone County. Lebanon High School and Lebanon Middle School are within walking distance of their home. The Gerards want to make the wind turbine available for educational purposes. “This would be a great learning lab for them,” she said.
Neighbors think it’s a great idea, she said. Some have asked if the Gerards will install a larger turbine and share the power. “One of my neighbors even thinks this is pretty,” Gerard said.
“I have very progressive neighbors," Gerard said.
“We’ve been thinking about this for a few years," Gerard said.
The used turbine would be atop a 100-foot-high monopole tower, for which Gerard needs a waiver from the Boone County Board of Zoning Appeals. Anything higher than 35 feet is not allowed in the area, said Steve Niblick, executive director of the Boone County Area Plan Commission.
The turbine tower is an approved use, but the county Board of Zoning Appeals will have to approve a height waiver, Niblick said.
“It’s for residential use, yes,” Niblick said. “Nevertheless ... you still have height requirements.”
Boone’s zoning ordinances do not cover wind farms, Niblick said.
In energy production terms, the turbine tower is no different than having a propane tank in her yard, Gerard said.
Gerard wants to be on the BZA’s agenda for August, she said.
Niblick said a company is investigating areas of Boone County for wind power potential.
A test tower — “it’s literally just a big pipe,” Niblick said — has been erected in western Boone County to monitor wind speeds for about 12 months. “It’s a temporary structure,” Niblick said. Because it did not require a permit, there was no paperwork and Niblick does not remember the company’s name.
Wind speed maps show areas of northwestern Boone County could be “farmed” for electricity.
The Gerards are among hundreds of Hoosiers who are interested in cutting their power bills by generating and possibly selling electricity.
In October 2004 Indiana passed a law encouraging the construction of solar, wind and small hydro-electric generation facilities, Lebanon Utilities General Manager Mike Martin said.
Utilities can agree to accept power from private units if those units produce less than 10 kilowatts of electricity, Martin said. A consumer’s electric bill would fluctuate based on how much power is generated vs. how much is used.
There are two ways to measure that power, Martin said.
One is with a meter that basically “runs backwards” when the consumer is sending power to the grid, and “forward when they are taking more than they are putting out,” he said. The other method uses separate meters for consumption and production.
Martin said electric utilities could in the next few years have “advanced meter infrastructure” to monitor output. “When a consumer is creating more power than they need, it could be shifted to the grid.”