Green and clean power chops electric bill by a third
November 3, 2009 by Tom GuayPosted in: Cost Cutting, Latest News & Views, News, Wind Power
The do-it-yourself electrical industry just chalked up another building using wind power to eliminate reliance on the standard coal-fired power grid. Payoff: a 33% savings on power bills.
The newest convert to clean and renewable wind power is the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) office in Bay City.
The agency has installed a 50-kilowatt wind turbine generating system on a 120-foot fiberglass tower.
The first month’s dollar savings aren’t ready just yet. “We just turned the unit on a couple of weeks ago,” says DEQ’s Bob McCann, “but we’re expecting to cut our electric bill by a third.” DEQ’s hoping to chop its $3,000 a month electric bill down by at least $1,000 a month. That would tally out to a $12,000 a year savings for the agency.
And the DEQ’s also generating greenhouse gas reduction credits by supplementing its electricity with a clean power source.
The building can run totally on wind power during off hours, but due to all the computers running in the building, it needs to blend coal and wind power to keep running efficiently. The building will sell power generated overnight by its turbine to the grid.
The wind turbine system was built by Kent Power, a Michigan-based company that many hope represents the future of the state’s new emphasis on green jobs.
Tags: Kent Power, Michigan DEQ, wind power
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November 5th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
While I am in favor of non polluting energy sources the first criteria is that they must be economically feasible. Your story was all fluff with no meat and potatoes. As Ross Perrot would say “the devil is in the details”. What was the cost to install the 50 kilowatt system and what is its useful life span? What is the projected annual maintenance cost? The saving of only about $12,000 a year doesn’t seem to be a justifiable cost/benefit ratio.
November 6th, 2009 at 10:46 am
Although a corporate “bean-counter” might not see the direct cost/benefit ratio, I would suggest that there are other monetary and social benefits that, while not considered by, “what’s my bottom line?” figuring, are just as real and possibly more important.
1. What is the benefit of getting 50 kilowatts off of the grid? If enough businesses did this, what would we save in the monetary, environmental and social costs of building even 1 less coal fired electric plant?
2. What is the social benefit of a business being a “good” environmental citizen?
3. What is the research benefit of getting these types of power sites up and running so that we can get “real-life” data and improve this technology for the future ?
4. What is the cumulative effect of hundreds or thousands of these projects in reducing green house gases, which inevitably will affect the health and well being of future generations ?
Good Project,..Let’s see more !!
December 3rd, 2009 at 3:36 pm
E.R Wheeler:
You took the words out of my mouth. Well said.
Do the Greenie’s think we are all idiots, and don’t think we should be shown the numbers?
Give me the Facts….. and let me decide if it is worth it.
December 3rd, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Steve Limbach:
Social Benefit of using our taxes badly ? Zero.
I recently bought a copier that was 100% recycled plastic. The recycled plastic was considered socially responsible, but probably used twice the amount of oil (fuel to pickup and recycle the plastic) than it would have for virgin material.
In the end it wasted oil…. plain and simple.
February 6th, 2010 at 10:58 pm
S Schemenauer: Hate to tell you this but you’re wrong. Twice the oil? Nonsense. It takes about as much (if not more!) oil to transport and dump that plastic and then make brand-new plastic, as it does to transport and recycle it. The only difference is that the plastic is now sitting in your home being productive instead of sitting in a landfill leeching toxins into the soil and/or ground water.
Do greenies think you’re all idiots? Not all of you … just the ones who go out of their way to prove it.