Cities join to build wind turbines

, Photo courtesy of city of Buffalo.

Wind Turbine in Buffalo, Minn.

A consortium of 11 cities, including Chaska, Shakopee and Buffalo, is working to meet renewable energy mandates.

By JIM ADAMS, Star Tribune

Last update: October 20, 2009 - 5:20 PM

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Wind-powered turbines are going up this month in five metro cities including Chaska, where work is underway on a 115-foot-high windmill next to Pioneer Trail Middle School.

Buffalo already erected its wind turbine in mid-September next to its high school, and Shakopee planning officials recently approved a permit for a wind turbine next to the city's utility building on Sarazin Street near Hwy. 101.

The cities are part of an 11-city consortium called the Minnesota Municipal Power Agency (MMPA) that is trying to meet the state's progressive renewable energy mandates. All 11 cities are erecting recycled windmills that should be generating electricity by year's end, said Dave Boyles of Avant Energy, the agency's wind project manager.

MMPA bought the refurbished windmills for $300,000 a piece from Palm Springs, Calif.

All 11 windmills are expected to be up and producing power by year's end, Boyles said. The electricity will be sold to residents, businesses and others.

Although the 160-kilowatt turbines will meet only 1 percent or less of local power needs, they will help MMPA members meet a state requirement that most utilities provide at least 12 percent of their electricity sales from renewable resources by 2012. That proportion will increase to 25 percent by 2025.

Some Buffalo residents opposed their windmill because of its relatively high generation costs, but high school students like the renewable energy idea, said city utilities director Joe Steffel. He said the turbine erected near Buffalo High School will provide about a third of the school's energy needs.

"It's in its infancy. It takes time to develop that technology," Steffel said. "I remember when gas cost 25 cents a gallon. Those days are gone. Our resistance is because of cheap energy and an abundance of it. As that goes away, wind will become more and more attractive."

The MMPA sold $3.6 million in low-interest bonds to pay for the turbines, to be repaid by customers of the member cities. The other members are Anoka, Arlington, Brownton, East Grand Forks, Le Sueur, Olivia, Winthrop and North St. Paul, which also has its windmill up.

In Anoka, a 115-foot-high white wind turbine was erected last week just north of Anoka High School. The decision to move ahead with the wind turbine project there also had its detractors. City Council Member Mark Freeburg voted against the plan, saying the windmill doesn't make economic sense because the power costs more to produce than electricity from nuclear or coal-fired power plants.

"If this was only for energy, it's a waste of money," said Anoka Mayor Phil Rice, who initially opposed the proposal. But the windmills can be useful as educational or promotional tools for green energy, and may even spur development of more-efficient energy technology, he said. "We need to invent a better way to produce power than we are currently," Rice said. The turbines are expected to last 20 years.

They begin producing energy when the wind blows at 8 miles per hour, Boyles said. They produce a full 160 kilowatts at wind speeds of about 24 mph, a velocity that occurs about 20 percent of the time according to area wind studies, he said.

At full output, a 160-kilowatt windmill generates enough electricity for about 100 homes, Boyles said.

These windmills are much shorter than the one- or two-megawatt turbines used on wind farms. Those big towers have sparked some complaints about noise, vibration, flickering blade shadows and impact on bats and migrating birds, said Bob Cupit, manager of energy facility permits for the state Public Utilities Commission. He said he hadn't heard any complaints about 160-kilowatt windmills, but the commission is collecting information on the possible impact of the large windmills, which are used primarily on wind farms.

Jim Adams • 612-673-7658