Friday, May 30, 2008

M72 Wind Turbine update

Today stopped by my wind turbine on M72 and the wind turbine has put 10 kwh back out onto the grid. The customer has bought 95kwh from the power company. The wind continues to be good at that site. As you can see these wind turbines do work. Stop by and take a look.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Latest install update

I was out to my customer's house where I installed her new turbine. She has bought very little power from the power company and has put back 7 kwh to the general system. It was so windy there yesterday the wind turbine kept shutting down because of the large gusts that were coming through. The wind turbine has a safety that is built into the system to prevent damage to the unit. When the wind blows above a certain speed, the governor stops the turbine from spinning. After the unit readjusts for the wind it starts spinning again.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Power Company

I can not thank Cherryland Electric Cooperative (CEC) enough for making my first wind turbine install so easy. They came out today to install the new bi-directional meter. This meter registers how much power is generated from the wind turbine, how much CEC power is used, and how much wind turbine excess power is put back onto the grid for general use. This meter allows the customer to get a credit for the extra power they generate but do not use. This job is now complete!

My next wind turbine will be in the Michigan thumb area but the power company (Thumb Electric Cooperative (TEC)). It seems they do want anyone to install wind turbines in their area. Kind of defeats what our Governor wants us to do. She has put out the call for individuals to invest in alternative energy businesses, but it seems that every where you turn there is someone trying to block that effort.

For example TEC has set up their net-metering agreement so that the average residential customer can not have any alternative energy source in their yard. TEC is telling customers that they have to get a special insurance policy to allow the electric coop to be added to that policy. If they had not asked for this type of policy, then your regular residential home owner policy would be sufficient. Instead the customer would have to buy a commercial liability policy which costs any where from $2000 - $3000 a year. That single requirement just added 25% or more to the cost a new wind turbine. It is tough to get people to buy a wind turbine or any other type of system with that type of requirement. In turn this will cause people to be held over the barrel by the electric company and people no longer will be working, because of the loss of potential sales. Defeats what the Governor wants us to do to help bring our state of this recession. Something to think about. Contact your local state representative and demand that the state get there net-metering agreement to a reasonable level in order that it not be so difficult for a residential customer to buy that wind turbine or other alternative energy source.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Received the blessing and the finished product.


Well it is official I received the final ok to start our first new wind turbine for Leelanau County.

I meet with the electrical inspector Ted Klumpp today at the project and we talked about a few things that I had done to prepare for this project. He only had one little issue but was a quick fix.

The power company was not able to come out to the project to view it get started. But I did receive a phone call from them to go ahead let her rip.

This job is now completed. I am currently test two other sites at this time for wind turbines and I have one sold in the Thumb Area of Michigan that is next be installed as soon as the power company there gets their net-metering agreement and my dad gets his insurance issue straightened around.

I also will be starting a wind test in Rose City as soon as I receive my new anemometers. Things are looking up.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Up, Up, and Away




Well today was an excellent day for us at J.D. Stratton Electric, Inc. We installed our first of many wind turbines in our area. We were going to do this later in the week, but we was able to get a crane today. So no time like the present to get this done.

As you can see we used a very large crane to lift this 45' tower into place.
You can see me hooking up the wiring up inside the pole. Yes I do work every once in a while.

I need to thank Elmer's for the professional job that they did for me today. Without them we would not have gotten this baby up. I will be using their services again in the future.


Here was what it looks like completed. So if you are looking a new wind turbine in your life , then give me a call and lets see what we can do for you.

Our next step is for an electrical inspection and for Cherryland Electric to come out see it work .

Monday, May 19, 2008

Pole in place


Well I got back out to the job a few days early than I thought. It was such a nice day I could not resist working outside.

Today I was able to get the wire in the ground from the house to the pole.

We also managed to get the pole moved up the hill too.

I will be starting to get the nacelle installed on the top of the pole soon, so that we can lift it up onto it's base.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

The Base


Yesterday we finished the first part of the new wind turbine for the Flynn project. We ran into a few obstacles but we soon over came them in the end. The base is poured for the pole this week hope to get the pole in pace so we can start installing the nacelle on to the pole.

Today I will be going out to the project to check on the freshly poured base and also try to start getting the wire in the ground from the house to the pole. Wish me luck.

Base ok

Just got back from the Flynn project and base did not have any rain spots on it from yesterdays rain that went through.

It was very wind and cold there today, so decided not to trench today. I will probably do it on Thursday.

I will post pictures when I am done.