WAUSEON - Art Miller found a way to pull money out of thin air.
"I was on a kick of what bill I could get rid of," said Miller, who owns a farm near Wauseon. "The way the market and the business are right now, profits seem to go down. But you can't pass it on to the customer."
He targeted an expense most people consider untouchable.
"What can I do to bring my cost of living to a bare minimum? Get rid of my utility bills," he said.
The answer was blowing in the wind, Miller found. A 5-kilowatt wind turbine stands about 125 feet from his house. Since Jan. 1, he watched his electric meter go backward. He said the turbine generates more electricity than he uses, meaning he'll get a check from FirstEnergy at the end of the year.
"When that motor kicked in, I was so happy," said John Carder, Miller's business partner with ALM&J Wind and Solar LLC. "I didn't know whether to watch the wind turbine or actually watch his meter spinning backwards. It's amazing."
Higher electric rates, available grant money and a push for alternative energy from the state and federal governments have the winds of change blowing the turbines' direction. It's not just for large-scale wind farms, such as ones proposed in Hardin and Logan counties. It's an opportunity for individual landowners.
Consumers have to be cautious against blowing through a wad of money without a good payback, electric company officials warn.
"Most people think the wind blows for free, so this should be a good deal," said George Carter, general manager and chief executive officer of Paulding-Putnam Electric Cooperative. "For some people, it just doesn't work out. The payback period might be a lot longer than they envision."
Local possibilities
Count Putnam Pierman, the man behind Putnam Power Inc.'s proposal to bring wind, solar and geothermal electric production to the area, as a proponent of wind energy. He's literally betting the farm on wind energy, using his family's 150-plus-year-old large homestead in Putnam County as collateral and a possible corporate home for a proposal he'll unveil in the next 45 to 60 days.
"I'd offer into evidence that Germany, your leading renewable energy country globally and the biggest solar country and second in wind, that their climatology there offers less than we have here in the state of Ohio," Pierman said.
The region has higher wind speeds than people might think. A study by AWS Truewind found the average wind speed at 30 meters between 12.3 mph and 15.7 mph throughout the region, with the highest rates stretching in Hardin and Logan counties. Miller's turbine needs 8 mph of breeze to kick into action.
"Down inside, most people think renewable energies are a good thing for the country to do," said Tom Dodds, who visited Miller's farm to investigate if a turbine is right for his farm near Bluffton.
Government programs will help turn Ohio into a major player in alternative energy, Pierman said.
"It's an exciting front. It's no longer, ‘Is it going to happen?'" he said. "It is happening. I want very badly for Northwest Ohio, including Allen, Putnam and Paulding counties, to be in the thick of it."
Government push
Ohio's alternative energy movement got the wind at its back last May, when Gov. Ted Strickland signed Senate Bill 221 into law.
The law requires 25 percent of the electricity sold by Ohio's investor-owned utilities come from alternative energy sources by 2025. Of that, 12.5 percent must come from renewable sources, such as solar, biomass fuel and wind.
Grants came along afterward. Residences and small farms are eligible for a $25,000 grant if one of Ohio's four largest investor-owned utilities, AEP-Ohio, Dayton Power & Light, Duke Energy or FirstEnergy, serves them. Businesses could receive incentives up to $150,000 for smaller turbines.
"We're excited to go into renewables," said Shelly Clark, a spokeswoman for AEP Ohio covering Northwest Ohio. "Initially we were going in this direction more slowly, but the state and federal government got involved. It makes it more pronounced how viable renewal energy is, even in the state of Ohio."
The federal government then enacted a tax credit, where owners of small wind farms with 100 kilowatts of capacity and less could receive a credit for 30 percent of the total installed cost of a system. That marked the first federal incentive for small wind systems since 1985, according to the Tax Incentives Assistance Project Web site.
U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, said he approves of an "all-of-the above" energy strategy, which he calls the "common-sense energy approach." He has concerns about government intervention, though.
"The government didn't force us from riding a horse to riding an automobile. The government didn't force us to go from the typewriter to the computer," Jordan said. "It's always been market innovation that has gotten us real advances in our economy."
Looking for payback
The incentives offer a lot of money, but wind turbines require a lot of up-front cost too. The incentives are paid after-the-fact.
While Carder, an Elida native, likes to quip, "The wind is free, at least for now," the systems he sells aren't. A 5-kilowatt wind turbine costs $50,000 to $55,000. A 10-kilowatt system costs another $6,000 to $8,000. Someone springing for a 30-kilowatt turbine could spend $70,000 for a complete installation.
"My concern now is the payback," Dodds said. "If you're looking at a $50,000 unit and a $25,000 grant, the payback on the other $25,000 is the question. That's a lot of money."
Carder said most people should see a payback in eight to 10 years, assuming their monthly electric bills are at least $150 a month. His company installed three turbines so far, with another two set to go up this summer.
Al Gill, who runs a dog kennel outside Uniopolis, has a keen interest in wind power and lives in the high-wind corridor. Still, the up-front cost concerns him.
"We use about $600 a month in electric just for the kennel, not including our house," he said. "It would pay for itself, without a doubt. We have constant wind out there that's terrible. The problem is doing it."
Electric cooperation
The electric companies in the region allow people with wind turbines to connect their systems into their grids.
AEP buys back any extra power generated by a turbine and not used by the landowner for between 3½ and 4 cents per kilowatt hour, Clark said.
"It offsets the costs and capital investments we have to put in at this time," she said. "Then the customer maintains control and ownership of the facilities. The customer is becoming more involved in their electric bill."
Ohio's electric cooperatives all work together through Buckeye Power. They allow customers to tie in their own power generators, but local cooperative officials have a less rosy picture on wind power.
"It just doesn't pan out," says Matt Berry, manager of customer and community relations for Midwest Electric Inc. in St. Marys, which serves large chunks of Auglaize and Allen counties. "It's very expensive and very unreliable. People are better off putting their money in energy efficiency."
Mid-Ohio Energy Cooperative, which serves portions of Allen, Auglaize, Hancock, Hardin, Logan and four other counties, has one wind turbine on the system currently and has two more coming online soon, said Tim Street, director of communications and member services.
"I always reference back to the ethanol big craze," Street said. "The government said it would subsidize ethanol down to the price of gasoline. It's doing just the opposite when it comes to renewable. They're basically prohibiting or taxing the energy we have, with natural gas, coal and other sources, and raising it up to the cost of renewables to make them competitive. It's a shame. It's not a win-win for the consumer."
Interest in the air
People interested in installing wind turbines say they remain intrigued by the possibilities.
"It'd be nice to see the meter looping the other way," said Melissa Pepple, who shares a home near Waynesfield with her husband, Dave.
With the constant wind at their farm, the duo who teach at Perry see possibilities.
"There's quite a bit of initial cost," Dave Pepple said. "But when you start factoring in the possible grants and how long it may or may not take to pay back, it seems like something that could be feasible."
For some people, it's not even about earning the money back in their lifetimes, Carder said. He recalled a conversation with a longtime farmer near Bluffton. For that farmer, the goal was independence more than financial payback.
"I talked to a guy today, 77 years old, retired, with a family farm that has been in his family a long time," Carder said. "Is he going to see a payback? Probably not, and I told him that. He doesn't care. He doesn't even care if he gets a grant.
"He said, ‘I want to stick it to them. I'm giving this place to my kids. I just want a turbine. I want to see my meter spinning backwards.' And that's the God's honest truth."
