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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2007 6:26:55 GMT -6
Small town turning to solar, wind power to provide energy
By Janet Cremer
janetcremer@daily-journal.com
Who can better understand the importance of combating the impact of global warming than the people of Stelle, an environmentally conscious community where Tim Wilhelm lives and runs his solar energy business.
About 20 percent of the homes there use solar power. The small Ford County town of about 50 homes has the first solar-powered telephone company, which uses a solar-photovoltaic power system, designed by Wilhelm, to power its digital switch. Part of the power for the town's water treatment plant is provided by a 10-kilowatt wind generator. About three miles outside Stelle is the first modern straw-bale home built in Illinois.
"There's a generalized attitude in Stelle that supports these kinds of things," said Wilhelm.
The community got its start as a religious group that had environmental matters among its core values. The original group no longer exists, but some of the value system still does.
"Some people who live here now have no idea of the history of the place. What they like is that most of us believe in being good stewards," he said.
So why aren't more of us following Stelle's lead?
Well, for one, up until Commonwealth Edison and Ameren instituted sharp rate hikes in January, electric rates have been relatively affordable. Wilhelm said that in states like California, New York and New Jersey, where rates are higher, the solar industry is "booming."
Still, investing in a solar-powered energy source is no cheap proposition. Before the rate increase, the payback period was 25 to 30 years, but he says as electric rates rise, that'll change.
"It's a matter of getting people to wise up, change their habits and prepare for the inevitable ... that the planet's surface is warming and the consequence that means."
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Post by Songbird on Feb 26, 2007 22:29:18 GMT -6
very interesting!  |
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Post by douglas on Feb 27, 2007 5:05:35 GMT -6
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Post by wvpeach on Feb 27, 2007 8:58:23 GMT -6
Well kudos to GM and Google for going solar! Doug, did you make your solar panels from scratch too? I would be very interesting in hearing about that ! I want info on those " Portable Laminent solar panels" I think is what he called them. I am a member of mother earth news forums , so I will head over there to see if I can get some info. If anybody has a site for these please let me know. I have a metal roof. These things look perfect for my home. |
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Post by douglas on Feb 27, 2007 10:48:27 GMT -6
No I bought them wired and ready to go and built a frame for them from the weather and kids  |
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Post by bscamo on Feb 27, 2007 13:14:45 GMT -6
All very interesting!!!!!! Here's a story more than 35 years old I thought y'all may enjoy. The City of Yakima decided to put a dome over one of their 3 large settling tanks at the sewage treatment plant. This was done in an effort to reduce the offensive odors. A methane gas collection and piping system was also installed so that gas could be burned off. After it was installed , the plant manager decided to have some mods done. Since it was a small project , he didn't need approval from the city council. With some inexpensive modifications , he used some of the gas to heat the plant complex office building. It was successful. It used very little of the gas collected so he decided to heat all of the buildings at the plant in the same manner. These mods were also successful and still only used a small portion of the gas. The cost of the mods were offset by more than double with the savings generated in the reduction in use of commercial natural gas. So the manager thought , why not install a generator that runs on methane gas and produce electricity. He also wanted to modify some of the plant vehicles to use this fuel. Since this was a much larger project , he needed the approval of the city council. In their "supreme wisdom" , they decided not to let the plant manager enact these extra ideas. They told him that electricity and fuel was already in the budget. It was a "use it or lose it" type budget. So his plan and requests were denied. He was also warned not to utilize any more of the gas in other manners or he would be seeking employment elsewhere. At least he was allowed to leave the building heating systems in place. A few years later , all 3 tanks were domed. The manager estimated that the gas could provide enough heat for about 25% of Yakima. He also shared this info with the city council. They told him they didn't want to "get in competition" with the natural gas company. And it would reduce the amount of tax dollars they would receive from the sales of natural gas.  In today's world , I wonder why more cities don't utilize at least some of this "free" natural gas? It would save money and could create more income for many cities. I guess it's just better to burn it off into the atmosphere with out any gains. 
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Post by douglas on Feb 27, 2007 13:17:48 GMT -6
Very good story, I like it  |
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An easy challenge seldom yields much gain.....you always harvest more from the difficult ones !