Your PUD
News Release
Second SNAP wind turbine going up in Chelan County
Chelan County PUD
News Release
5/15/2003
A Peshastin couple will become the second producers of wind power in Chelan County PUD’s SNAP program with installation of a wind turbine at their home May 19 and 20.
The turbine will be placed on a 100-foot tower at the home of Don and Bev Grim, on Campbell Road off the Blewett Pass Highway. Brooks Solar Inc. of Chelan is providing the equipment and overseeing installation. The turbine, rotor system and tower will be put together at the site and lifted into position with a crane.
The Bergey turbine installation is capable of producing up to 10 kilowatts of electricity. It is very similar to the program’s first wind turbine, installed May 1, 2002 at the Colockum ranch of Charlie and June Nichols. As of March 27, 2003, the Nichols’ turbine had generated 7,222 kilowatt hours of electricity for SNAP (Sustainable Natural Alternative Power).
The Grims’ wind-power system will be tested and inspected before being connected to the PUD’s electrical grid within the next couple of weeks. All power produced by the new wind turbine will be fed into the PUD’s grid and distributed to customers.
Installation of the wind turbine was made possible by the PUD’s SNAP program. The program, introduced in August 2001, links PUD customers who want to support the development of alternative energy with local producers of that energy. PUD customers who pay a little more on their energy bills – rates vary from $2.50 to $50 a month – for SNAP are in effect purchasing solar and wind power.
All of the funds designated by PUD customers for SNAP are divided once a year among SNAP producers, based on their energy production. Production from the program’s four solar producers and the Nichols’ wind turbine totaled 30,722 kilowatt hours over a 12-month period in 2002-03. The producers shared a total of $35,869.
The other SNAP producers are Cashmere Middle School, Randy and Anne Brooks, the federal government (at the Federal Building in downtown Wenatchee) and Wenatchee Valley College (at the Eller-Fox building, visible from Fifth Street).
Through an agreement with the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, which funded WVC’s solar array, revenues from the generation of electricity at the college will be used to build three new solar power stations at schools in Chelan County. The school systems will be similar to the 600-watt solar station installed at Cashmere Middle School last September. Students at the schools will be able to help install the solar panels, monitor their output, and compare their power production with that at other schools in the Pacific Northwest.
The location of the school systems is still being finalized, but plans call for installations in Wenatchee, Chelan and Leavenworth.
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For more information, contact project Energy Services Engineer Jim White at 661-4829.
Kimberlee Craig
Public Information Officer
661-4320
679-6858 cell
kimc@chelanpud.org