NEWS

Kelso man erects his own wind turbine

The Daily News (Longview, WA)
February 9, 2008
www.tdn.com
By Erik Olson

It was an old windmill that gave Don Sims the idea to power his own home on Walker Road in Kelso.

Sims built the windmill in his back yard in 1980 as a decoration, something he could watch to relax. The spinning round wheel was soothing, he said.

"It never stops, and that's what got me thinking to use the wind power up here. It never quits," said Sims, 67.

So Sims began looking into the practical application of harnessing the strong winds that sometimes gust along the hill overlooking Kelso. And he not only discovered how it could be done, but how both he and the Cowlitz PUD could wind up winners.

Sims, who owned Evergreen State Concrete Pumping for 34 years before retiring last year, installed a 32-foot-high Skystream 3.7 wind turbine in his back yard last month, which he hopes will power his home and then some. Any excess power he generates will be sold back to the PUD through a program known as net metering.

Sims is the first person in Cowlitz County to take advantage of the program, even though it's 10 years old, said Dave Andrew, Cowlitz PUD spokesman.

PUD officials are hoping Sims' experiment could launch a new wave of power generation in Cowlitz County. By 2012, 3 percent of all power produced by the PUD must be from a renewable source, such as wind or solar. So the more people who follow in Sims' footsteps, the closer the PUD comes to meeting its mandate, Andrew said.

"We've been waiting many years for this. It's very exciting," Andrew said.

Still, Andrew said it's too soon to tell if legions of turbines will crop up in back yards across the county because Cowlitz already sells mostly clean power. Eighty-nine percent of the PUD's power is hydroelectric, he said.

Sims' turbine also leaves more power available for the rest of the ratepayers in Cowlitz County, said Grant Sawyer, who's with the PUD's energy conservation program.

"It's power we don't have to provide him. We can provide it to someone else," Sawyer said.

The wind turbine cost about $9,000, and it took Sims about three weeks to install it. With the amount of money he'll save on his power bill at his 13-acre property, Sims said the turbine will pay for itself within three or four years. He's also eligible for state tax breaks.

Sims monitors the power generated by the three 6-foot-long blades of the turbine from his computer inside his house. A second meter measures the power and turns back the meter installed by the PUD.

Sims said he's talked to other people who were thinking of installing their own turbines. They're interested in the technology, but they didn't want to be the first ones to try it, he said.

"They want to see one working," he said.

If there's a movement in Cowlitz County toward private wind power, it's got a good start from Sims, Andrew said.

"It takes a customer like Don who's really into green power," Andrew said.

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