The county erected seven towers to measure wind patterns at various locations, for about a year. The assessment, costing Liberty County about $20,000, is a prospecting venture, said County Commissioner Ed Diemert, who is assisting with the project spearheaded by Commissioner Don Marble.
"It's fine and dandy to talk about wind generation, but you've got to have pretty good documentation so you know exactly where you sit," Diemert said. County officials want to make data collected from the towers available to anyone interested in developing wind energy.
Many power transmission lines for potential use in marketing wind energy already exist in Liberty County. The Western Area Power Administration, Northwestern Energy and electric cooperatives have lines.
Each of the new test towers is outfitted with an anemometer, a wind-measuring device, that will collect a year's worth of data. The county hired Global Energy Concepts, a wind energy consulting firm based in Kirkland, Wash., to help set up the testing and analyze results.
"Ultimately it comes down to is there enough wind," said Global project manager Kevin Smith. "It looks OK ... They have the right characteristics. I wish the elevation was a little bit higher."
Smith said he is somewhat concerned that the best wind in the area is at high altitudes, making it more difficult to capture. The test towers, set up at varying elevations, will help analysts identify the best wind streams.
Liberty County's first wind venture, a 10-kilowatt turbine installed at the county shop last January, spins on an 80-foot tower and has helped cut the shop's power bills from $400-$500 some months to roughly $100.
Some of the savings stem from greater energy awareness on the part of shop employees, Diemert said. "That's been as big a savings as the wind generation," he said.
Funding for the $45,000 project included at least $27,000 in grants from a variety of sources, among them the National Center for Appropriate Technology in Butte, U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality.
Commissioners say the project was intended more as a demonstration of wind power's potential, than as a moneymaker.
"It's been working so well and, we think, doing such a great job for us," Marble said. "It's created a great amount of interest in the local people."
The county installed its first two test towers in the fall of 2002.
One is on Diemert's farm near Lothair and the other is on Commissioner Russ Tempel's farm north of Joplin. The 20-foot towers are on loan from DEQ. Two additional 20-foot towers were erected in November and December 2004, one northwest of the hydroelectric plant at Tiber Dam and one south of Lothair near the Western Area Power Administration transmission line. Those towers also are on loan from DEQ. The county spent $12,000 on three additional towers.
People awaiting results of the wind assessment include some farmers pursuing a Tiber Dam irrigation project. They want to know the extent to which wind could power irrigation systems.
|
 |
 |
Add your comment now! Write your comment in the form below.
(Email address is for verification only. If you'd like to email a story, look for the link above)