Renewable Energies Open House Set

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Yankton Press & Dakotan
October 22, 2008
http://yankton.net

LESTERVILLE — An renewable-energies open house will be held from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 25, on the Doug Auch farm, located at 42948 300th Street, Lesterville (1/2 mile west of Lesterville. The event will be hosted by the Auch family and D&Z Energy Systems.

The Auch family will become a Yankton County Leader in consumer-scale renewable energy use as it erects a 45-foot. wind turbine at its residence in rural Lesterville. The turbine, believed to be the first of its kind in Yankton County, is called the Skystream 3.7, produced by Flagstaff, Ariz.-based Southwest Windpower. It has a 1.8-kilowatt 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 2007-08’s winter chill out of their home on sunny days, saving on winter heating costs. These panels were produced by Your Solar Home Inc., Vaughan, Onatio, Canada. Eventually the Auchs 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.