Saturday, August 7, 2010

Breaking Wind

The Official Unofficial Minutes of the WL BOA
August 3rd

The most excitement of the evening was generated by Public Comments from Tom Henke.  An otherwise moribund Mayor and Council perked up with Tom's presentation of facts and figures regarding the potential for wind generated power for City Hall.  This was a followup to comments made by Alderman Bossert at a previous meeting.  Tom's company (Milbank Manufacturing) is expanding business into the wind business as well as back up generators.  Some facts presented by Tom:
  • A 5KW wind turbine would have a 120 foot tower with 10 foot blades.
  • Approx. $40,000 purchase price including installation.
  • 16 yrs for payoff/breakeven.
  • Maintenace cost of about $500 per year.
  • The idea is to use the power generated to take care of City Hall and sell excess back to KCPL.
  • They also sell natural gas back up generators in various sizes.
    Modern wind energy plant in rural scenery.Image via Wikipedia
Question from one of the aldermen: "Could this be used to generate power for street lights "(No)
Alderman Bossert pointed out a $36.2 Billion US Dept of Energy grant program for reduction of dependence on oil.  $6.78 Billion has been allocated for wind turbine projects.  Further research on grant specifics will be done (I guess by Bossert).  No specific followup was determined but there was a definite giddy feeling in the air.  
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Isn't Hoy a grant expert? Believe she ran on that point once upon a time. Oh, that's right she got all the utility lines buried for us!!!!

Anonymous said...

This would be of great benefit to Mr. Henke. Under the circumstances, would hope the BOA would seek more than one bid/proposal for something like this.