Temple couple gets OK to build wind turbine
Union Leader|Nancy Foster, Correspondent |September 14, 2006
Tuesday night, the Temple Select Board unanimously agreed to allow Rob and Vivian Nicholl a permit to install a 40-foot Skystream wind turbine on their property.
Tuesday night, the Temple Select Board unanimously agreed to allow Rob and Vivian Nicholl a permit to install a 40-foot Skystream wind turbine on their property.
Temple – For centuries, the power of the wind was harnessed by Americans for uses ranging from pumping water to milling corn, but as the nation's dependence on fossil fuels increased, wind fell out of favor as an energy source. However, as petroleum prices rise, wind is making a comeback, and one Temple couple is adapting new technology to capture its power.
Tuesday night, the Temple Select Board unanimously agreed to allow Rob and Vivian Nicholl a permit to install a 40-foot Skystream wind turbine on their property.
Created by Arizona-based Southwest Windpower, the turbine has been designed with average homeowners in mind, according to Rob Nicholl, who worked with the company to create the residential system.
With the Skystream …
... more [truncated due to possible copyright]Temple – For centuries, the power of the wind was harnessed by Americans for uses ranging from pumping water to milling corn, but as the nation's dependence on fossil fuels increased, wind fell out of favor as an energy source. However, as petroleum prices rise, wind is making a comeback, and one Temple couple is adapting new technology to capture its power.
Tuesday night, the Temple Select Board unanimously agreed to allow Rob and Vivian Nicholl a permit to install a 40-foot Skystream wind turbine on their property.
Created by Arizona-based Southwest Windpower, the turbine has been designed with average homeowners in mind, according to Rob Nicholl, who worked with the company to create the residential system.
With the Skystream system, the turbine is mounted on a tower and produces energy when the wind blows at least 8 miles an hour. The energy is fed from the turbine to an inverter that turns it into electricity and connects directly to the home's electrical box. Unlike many older models of wind turbines, there is no need for an auxiliary building to house the inverter.
On windy days, the turbine will power the house, but on calm days, electricity can be drawn from the electrical utility company.
"It gets tied into the grid," said Nicholl, and depending on the amount of wind, the turbine can actually cause the electric meter to spin backwards, resulting in a credit from the power company.
On average, depending on wind conditions, the Skystream can cut electricity bills by anywhere from 20 to 90 percent, but Nicholl estimates that in the winter, there will be no electric bill to pay at all.
The tower and turbine the Nicholls are installing will be 40-feet tall and barely visible beyond their 23-acre property.
"We're putting in right in the middle of an existing field," said Vivian Nicholl. "We're ready to dig the foundation, and the turbine is on its way." The cost of the turbine, including installation, the tower and the inverter, ranges between $9,000 and $12,000, depending on the height of the tower and what's required to prepare the land for installation. The height of the tower is dependent on the surrounding landscape. It should be 20 feet higher than anything within a 300-foot radius in order to operate at its optimal capacity.
"This is a first for Temple," said Select Board Chairman Charlene Eddy after the board approved the building permit. "Temple likes firsts."