HOME > NEWS & PRESS > NEWS ITEM If I had $15,000… I’d buy myself a SkystreamSharePrairie Roots WordPress One of the dreams my husband and I have for our land is to put up a residential wind turbine. I’ve been fascinated with the Skystream since I read about it in Mother Earth News about a year ago. It looks like the best residential wind power option to come along so far for people like us with the land and wind to make it a viable way to power our home with clean, renewable energy. And it only costs about $15,000 for the entire system, including transportation and installation. Now that’s about $15,000 more than we have at the moment to invest in wind power, but it’s not out of the realm of the possible for us in the future. We think it would be worth the investment. I haven’t heard of anyone in South Dakota with a Skystream yet (although I’ve enjoyed keeping up with this Iowa family and their recent Skystream addition), so I was very excited to find the following email in my inbox this morning, posted here in its entirety: Skystream Open House Saturday Yankton county family embraces small wind and solar technology as they host a demonstration open house WHEN: 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Saturday, October 25, 2008 To RSVP or for more information contact us at 605-364-7318, 605-660-5731 or email: dzenergysystems@gmail.com. The Douglas Auch Family will become a Yankton County Leader in consumer-scale renewable energy use as it erects a 45 ft. wind turbine at its residence, rural Lesterville, SD. The turbine, believed to be the first of its kind in Yankton County, is called the Skystream 3.7, produced by Flagstaff, AZ-based Southwest Windpower. It has a 2.4 kW rating with an interactive computer kiosk that will show real-time statistics about what the mini-turbine is producing. The turbine will generate electricity to provide power to the Auch home and electricity cost savings. The two solar heating panels on the south side of the Auch home kept teh 2007-2008 winter chill out of their home on sunny days, saving on winter heating costs. These panels were produced by Your Solar Home Inc., Vaughan, ON, Canada. Eventually the Auch’s hope to incorporate a “hybrid-system” which includes solar-generated electricity with battery back-up for either or both wind and solar generated electricity. Although the wind turbine will provide only a portion of the home’s energy requirements, the Auch Family hopes to use the mini-turbine and solar heating panels as educational tools so that interested residents can see the ‘how’ and the ‘what’ of turbines and solar heating panels. They too can embrace small wind and solar technologies to save themselves money and become more self-reliant. The Auch Family and D & Z Energy Systems will host a DEMONSTRATION OPEN HOUSE featuring this RENEWABLE RESOURCE TECHNOLOGY at their home. WHAT: Demonstration Open House of a small-scale wind turbine, the Skystream 3.7, and solar heating panels. This is part of a national trend in residents, farms, and small businesses adopting small-scale renewable energy technologies. WHEN: 10am to 3pm, Saturday, October 25, 2008 WHERE: 42948 300th Street, Lesterville, SD 57040 (1/2 mile west of Lesterville, SD) |
