Commission eyes $24M wind farm
The Jackson Utilities Commission has expressed interest in installing a $24 million dollar municipal wind farm upon the recommendation of a 16-year-old.
Tanner Hummel, who serves the city in the official capacity of junior councilperson, met with utilities commissioners Monday at City Hall to pitch the idea of a 12-unit wind farm he says could be built without raising taxes, could pay for itself in less than a decade and could eventually become a serious source of revenue for the increasingly cash-strapped city.
“I feel the city of Jackson has the chance to take a step in the right direction environmentally and fiscally,” he said, “so I am proposing that we move forward and begin producing our own energy. We, the people of Jackson, will produce, use and sell our own clean wind energy.”
Hummel said the idea for such an endeavor was not his own, though he has since sunk hundreds of hours into the project.
“I’ve been looking into this for about six months,” he said. “A citizen came up to me and asked me why we were spending all this money to remove the dam when we could be spending it on something that could actually make us money, like wind energy.”
The idea made sense to Hummel, who “called a couple local people” to obtain some “basic information,” initial steps that eventually led him to phone conversations with nearly all the major wind turbine companies in the nation and a face-to-face meeting with the head loan and grant writer at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C., a man who Hummel told commissioners is a “good person to know.”
In fact, it would be through the USDA that the city could raise enough capital to build the dozen-unit wind farm.
“If we can get into the USDA’s Rural Economic Development loan program, we can get a 0-percent loan,” he said. “From there, the turbines should pay for themselves in six to nine years.”
Hummel said that calculation is based on a number of facts: the 12 turbines would produce 52 million kilowatt hours per year, covering all of the 50 million KWHs used by the city, with the excess being sold to the city’s power supplier, Missouri River Energy Services.
Each turbine is capable of producing 1,500 KWHs per hour at 100 percent efficiency, Hummel said. But, he added, the wind does not always blow and sometimes there is no demand for it. Accordingly, he based all his calculations on a market standard of 33 percent efficiency — a conservative estimate, in his opinion.
“I believe the turbines will produce closer to 80 percent, like Pipestone school district’s, than to the market standard,” he said, forcing that nine-year payback estimate down closer to the six.
The upside of the proposal is huge, Hummel said.
“It will keep electrical rates low in Jackson,” he said. “We can produce cheaper than others because we won’t have to pay taxes on the energy produced and you will be getting it straight from the provider, the city. With keeping the rates lower than surrounding cities, we will be able to draw in new companies. The new companies and promise of lower rates will draw in more people also.”
Hummel said, if the city decided to pursue a municipal wind farm of this scale, windmills could be up and churning out power for the city well before his 20th birthday.
“My research indicates a timeline of two to three years is not out of the question,” he said.
Following Hummel’s presentation Monday, commission chair Gayl Berkner raised one hurdle — the city’s binding contract for power with MRES.
“I appreciate all you’ve done,” she told Hummel, “but there is one tiny little problem — our contract with MRES goes until 2014 and there is no room for renegotiation.”
Jackson Mayor Mitch Jasper, who attended Monday’s meeting in support of Hummel and his proposal, said initial indications are that the city would be able to “get around that.”
“It can work,” he said. “This idea that it can’t work because nobody else is doing it is the only reason that it cannot. It can be done. This man has given this a lot of time and effort. It will take jumping through some hoops, but the idea that Jackson can’t do this is inaccurate.”
Commissioner Lee Lapic said he recognized the amount of thought that went into the proposal and said he would be willing to look into the issue further, though he admitted he didn’t know if he agreed with it at this point.
“It might sound foolish to some of us older generation,” he said, “but the new generation is the future.”
Commissioners requested a follow-up meeting with Hummel and representatives of MRES and the USDA. Discussion will continue on the proposal at the July 27 utilities commission meeting.
By Justin R. Lessman
2 July 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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