November, 2008

As the price of crude oil this summer rose to unprecedented levels $147.00/barrell, and home heating oil was soaring at around $4.79 per gallon. It became apparent that cheap energy was a thing of the past. As we contemplated the costs of heating our home for the winter and started reviewing our resources and looking into alternative ways of generating energy. There was and is solar, our house was origionally designed for solar with an nice south facing roof and a large east facing wall with direct access to the horizen as we live high on a ridge. Solar is a good option and one that we continue to explore but as I researched it I found that significant advancement in the technology and potentially drastice reductions in price could be a reality within a few years. So why invest a lot of money into a system now that may be much less expensive and technologically better in just a few years.

Then those cold winter nights when the wind howls across the peak of our roof relentlessly for hours caused me to think:what if we could take advantage of that wind. I had recently been to a college campus in the midwest that was getting as much as a third of all of their power from and industial sized wind turbine they had installed. Shortly there after a couple of small residential turbines were contstructed in our town. As I watched those turbines in operation, I was struck by their beauty and the beauty of the process that allows for the generation of completetly clean energy anytime the wind is blowing. Morning, noon and midnight it didn't matter, if the wind is blowing at 8mph or more energy is being made.

These thoughts keyed a reevaluation of how we use and most of the time waste energy. I started looking into ways to reduce consumption, creating significant savings immediately. I then began to refocus on ways that power could be generated and started considering the potential of becoming energy independent. If energy independece could be achieved, that could be one of the best investements now that would have a real and lasting impact for the rest of our lives. If we could elimate a $100/month electric bill and through converting our heating system eliminate a $300-500/month oil expense their depending on costs, that would be an investment that would allow us to be energy free and indepenent within 10 years. The possibilty exists that through a combination of wind and solar at some point that our production could be largely if not fully met including the possibility of providing free electricity for future vehicles.

This turbine alone will not allow us to reach those objectives however, when combined with improving solar technolgies and potential upgrades on our generator it can become a realistic possibilty.