Story originally printed in the Winona Daily News or online at www.winonadailynews.com
Published - Friday, August 27, 2004
Wind energy tour draws 17 people
LEWISTON, Minn. —- Seventeen people interested in wind energy got an eye full of southeast Minnesota wind turbines cranking out electricity Thursday.
A Lewiston-Altura school bus was used to haul the group to three wind turbine sites, the biggest and most distant was the 41-turbine, 65-megawatt G. McNeilus Wind Farm near Dodge Center, Minn.
But the first stop, just a mile or two southeast of Lewiston, was at the Dick Fischer farm where he installed a small wind turbine atop a 100-foot tower last December.
"Anybody can put this together if they know how to use an erector set," he said as the group gathered under the three-sided tower. The wind generator cost $33,000 and the cement base, wiring and installation cost a little more than $5,000.
"We'll have it paid for in 12 years," Fischer said.
The next stop was the Ron and Sue Babcock acreage south of Lewiston near Interstate 90. Their son, Corey, got them involved in wind energy when he was 12 years old. He made his own small generators and powered lights in his tree house, Sue said. Now 22, he is working for a company in the wind turbine industry.
The family has two wind generators atop two 120-foot towers. One sends power to storage batteries and the other sells the electricity to Tri-County Electric. The generators cost about $1,500 each and the towers $1,000 each, she said.
Garvin McNeilus met with the tour group and said he sort of fell into wind energy production. After selling a business, he was considering several options. He noticed the flag on his flag pole was shredded in the wind and needed replacing, twice.
"I said, ‘Um, wind.' True story," McNeilus said. "I like the wind industry. It's clink, clink, clink. Even though it's pennies, it makes a nice pile."
McNeilus owns many of the 41 235-foot tall towers topped by Danish wind turbines. His 23-year-old grandson, Grant McNeilus, owns some as do several relatives, and a few he has dedicated to fund orphanages abroad.
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