This week’s post is all about wind.
Actually it’s all about the four windmills outside of town, (the state’s only utility-sized wind farm!) and how they work.
But first, a bit of local history.
Paul Brock, assistant utilities director for Bowling Green, said the 7.2 Megawatt wind farm was the “brain child” of former Utilities Director. Back in 1999 he put up a 50-meter wind monitoring station to see if having turbines in BG would be feasible.
As anyone who’s ever walked anywhere in BG in the winter knows — it was.
So in 2003 the city purchased the two initial turbines at a cost of $2.5 million each. A year later, the last two were purchased bring the grand total to $10 million. At this point the city refinanced the windmills through AMP-Ohio, a utilities co-op that supplies Bowling Green’s power.
The power generated by the windmills is enough to power about 1,500 homes for one year — basically 2 percent of BG’s power comes form the windmills.
Brock said the windmills would be entirely paid off in 10 years. At that point the city would be essentially receiving “free” power (minus the cost of maintenance and upkeep, which Brock put at $200,000 a year for all of the windmills). The lifespan of a windmill is as long as the city chooses to maintain it.
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Now that you’ve go a bit of history go ahead and take a tour of the wind farm …
Now give it some context. See how Bowling Green stacks up with other Ohio cities in terms of green energy …
Lookin’ some additional info?
In terms of their performance, Brock said the best months for the windmills are in the winter, and the worst months are during the summer:
(On both photos, click for a larger image)
And here’s a more detailed break down of the combined output of the four turbines during the month of February (2008):
And as a brief historical aside …
As you might imagine, today’s windmills are a far cry from their predecessors. Check it out:
One of the Wind turbines outside of BG
During the winter of 1887-88 Charles Brush* built what is today believed to be the first automatically operating wind turbine for electricity generation.
*Charles Brush is kind of the forgotten wind pioneer, and he’s actually from Cleveland, Ohio. The windmill pictured above is at what would become the corner of 37th and Euclid streets.
The Danish Wind Energy Association provides some good information about him and his turbines.
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That pretty much cover it for this week folks. But be sure to check back next week for more of what’s going green in Bowling Green.
Until next time,
Laura
Interesting stuff. I’ve visited a Danish windmill somewhere in Nebraska. . . forget where exactly. . . but it was the old-school wooden variety. I’ve learned a lot about BG’s windmills through your story and video. Nicely done.
Watch typos. . . there are a couple. . . also in the video title when you’re talking about more than 2 things, you use “among” not “between” (in the graphic that mentions communities sharing). Also, steady up that camera. . . don’t be afraid to just frame nice steady static shots and keep the camera still. . . set it on something if you have to.
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