Contruction prep started last week (August 12th) for our Wind Generator. Cheyenne Wind Energy out of Cheyenne, WY is the company contracted to perform the construction and responsible for getting it operational. A local contractor in El Paso County, JJ O'Donnell, is serving as the General Contractor from a permitting and subcontractor management perspective for Cheyenne Wind.
I should step back a couple of months and talk about what motivated us to pursue such a costly project. Obviously many of us want to go "green", but it can be cost prohibitive with the current economy. What got the ball rolling was while discussing various topics with a friend who lives just a few miles from us told me that he had been talking to Cheyenne Wind Energy and gave me their contact information. I was on a mission!
Two types of financial assistance made it possible to stay the course. The first is President Barack Obama's stimulous package included a 30% tax credit for all "green" activities with no cap. This tax credit is for all associated costs including the equipment, permits, labor, etc. (FYI, this tax credit is available to all citizens.) Although this is a great incentive, especially for smaller items like water heaters and such, it did not push me over the edge to sign on the dotted line.
Colorado Governor, Bill Ritter's Energy Office (GEO) initiated a Small Wind Rebate Program and allocated this year's grants to Electric Companies and Cooperatives throughout Colorado. (Read more at http://www.colorado.gov/energy/) The electric cooperative that provides our power, Mountain View Electric Association, Inc. http://mvea.org/ (MVEA) was set to receive somwhere in the vacinity of $50,000 to distribute to its customers. I do not know how other energy companys and coops did it, but this is what Mountain View did.
They had a drawing! In late June Cheyenne Wind gave me all the information about this and wanted to know if we wanted them to put our name in the drawing on our behalf. We could not say no. The award (if drawn) $2 for each Watt for which the wind generator is rated. The system proposed for us was a 2.4 kW! I know you can do the math but in case your mind has not gotten around that calculation yet, the number is $4,800!!!!
Then the waiting began...
The drawing was done on July 16th and the next day (a Friday), I received a call from the Master Electrician managing this project at MVEA. He informed me that out of 33* names in drawing (*I think that was the number), we were number 9 which placed us high enough to get the $4.800 grant.
On July 21st I received the letter officializing the award. Then it was a mad scramble to the preliminary site visit in to discuss the location of the equipment and various other details including the contract. The contract had to be signed and a copy to MVEA no later than August 7th. I had carried mine on the 6th and met with the Master Electrician where I learned more about how MVEA "buys" excess energy produced. My current meter will be replaced with a new "net" meter that will run backwards if our equipment produces more energy that we consume. There is no maximum that you are allowed to send onto the grid. It is possible to have a negative electric bill but most believe that is highly unlikely. We are still hopeful.
I also learned that the generator has a WiFi interface that will connect with my home wireless network and feed data to a computer application that will track statistics about the performance and production of the system. So it will be very educational to see all the data and various charts, etc. that comes with the application.
==End of Chapter==
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