Trehab boosts wind power
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The New Age Examiner
May 28, 2008
www.newage-examiner.com
By Josh Mrozinsk
A community action agency known for weatherization and other programs has recently started to promote wind energy and expects to have windmills installed this summer.
The organization, Montrose-based Trehab, is marketing residential turbines through its for-profit subsidiary, Trehab Energy and Home.
"We're looking to put up three to five turbines this summer," Trehab Executive Director Dennis Phelps said. "We're also working with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture to market to small towns."
The organization has notified municipalities in Wyoming, Susquehanna, Bradford and Sullivan counties about its wind program.
The windmills will be provided by Southwest Windpower of Flagstaff, Ariz.
Already, Trehab has a waiting list of 30 individuals who want a windmill.
"Any profits made by the subsidiary will be put back into the nonprofit agency," Phelps said.
Within six weeks, a windmill will be installed at a complex in Tunkhannock Township off Route 92, where a Trehab office is located, Phelps added.
The windmill will be connected to a nearby state department of agriculture office located at the complex.
"If people ask us questions about the windmill, we'll refer them to Trehab," department of agriculture spokesman Chris Ryder said.
As Trehab promotes wind power, Keystone College is testing wind resources at its campus in La Plume in hope of generating wind power by 2009.
In the southern part of Wyoming County, BP Alternative Energy is looking to have a 35-90 wind turbine facility in operation by the end of 2009.
For the past two years, Trehab researched renewable energy programs.
"We periodically look at innovative ways to provide services to the community," Phelps said.
After discovering that people were growing increasingly concerned with the rising cost of energy, Trehab decided to promote wind power.
Phelps said that wind power fits with Trehab's mission because the agency already has a weatherization program that works with people to install energy saving measures in their homes.
Two months ago, Trehab become a dealer for Southwest Windpower.
"They approached us as a group," Southwest Windpower co-founder Andy Kruse said. "We're a 20-plus-year-old manufacturer of small-scale wind generators."
The company has built more than 100,000 windmills. Trehab will be distributing a 1.9 kilowatt windmill known as Skystream.
Skystream is available on towers that range from 33 feet to 110 feet tall.
Kruse said that it can cost from $13,000 to $15,000 to install a Skystream.
He added that a windmill could provide 20 to 90 percent of a home's or business' energy needs.
For more information about Trehab's wind energy program call, 278-3338.
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