ONOWAY, Alta. – Joe Waldowski is the dad all kids want.
He built an 80 metre suspension bridge over a coulee dugout, perfect for leaping off into the water below on a hot summer day.
He built a cozy tree house 30 metres high, perfect for spying on parents or approaching cars.
He’s also one of the first farmers in northern Alberta to use a wind turbine to generate power for his house and two farm shops and have plenty left over for the province’s electricity grid.
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Waldowski didn’t set out to chart new territory in wind energy. He was given a 53 metre tall tower in exchange for taking it down with his crane. For three years he had the area’s tallest flagpole.
After climbing the tower to replace a flag shredded by the wind, Waldowski decided to exchange the flag for a 10-kilowatt, $20,000 US wind turbine.
“It would be really windy up there and down below there would be no wind. I thought I might as well make use of it,” said Waldowski, who had hoped to reduce his electrical bills and sell power to the province’s electrical system.
But while Alberta’s electrical industry is deregulated, bureaucracy and paperwork make it difficult for individuals to sell power to the grid.
So Waldowski donates excess power to the grid because it is too complicated to sell it.
When Alberta deregulated its electrical industry, companies that distribute the energy were separated from those that create or sell it.
The Central Alberta Rural Electrification Association, a co-operative of rural power users, distributes power to farms and Waldowski said it is not interested in buying power from him.
Power generators must pay to participate in the province’s energy trading system. For a small producer like Waldowski, the cost to trade energy is often more than the value of the electricity. Wind turbines operated by the big commercial wind farms of southern Alberta are rated to generate 1,000 kWs of electricity, dramatically more than Waldowski’s 10 kW turbine.
He also would need to pay the Central Alberta REA for meter reading and data handling.
“They are so reluctant. They just don’t want the competition. They are very discouraging,” said Waldowski, who believes Central Alberta REA and other power distributors will eventually be forced to provide net metering, a system that measures incoming and outgoing power, subtracts them, and provides a single number with no fees.
Delegates at the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties convention in November passed two resolutions calling on the provincial government to develop a net metering policy to encourage farmers to adopt renewable energy options. They also passed a resolution to simplify grid connection procedures.
For 15 years, a 10 kW wind turbine has provided energy to Kevin Niemi’s farm near Trochu, Alta.
His goal when he bought the wind turbine in 1991 was to gain a measure of energy self sufficiency.
“It’s kind of a sovereignty thing.”
Widespread power outages in eastern Canada led Niemi to believe the country’s electrical grid is fragile. If Alberta’s grid crashed, Niemi didn’t want to be caught off guard.
“My first and primary focus is to have a back up.”
The turbine is the first source of power for his home and outbuildings. A recently added second source is a row of 20 solar panels producing 1,500 watts. A roomful of batteries stores much of the excess power. He is still connected to the grid, which acts as his backup for cloudy or calm days.
“I haven’t taken the full leap of faith.”
Few people, including Niemi, believe alternative energy is a cheaper or easier option than conventional power from the grid, especially on the farm. Niemi’s wind turbine cost $26,000. Add in $6,000 to $10,000 for batteries and inverters and the system has yet to pay for itself.
Niemi believes a recent Ontario decision to require utilities to buy renewable energy at a set price from residents should be adopted by other provinces.
It would encourage more farmers to adopt alternative energy and create a new source of on-farm income.
“It would open the door big time,” said Niemi.
Since adopting alternative power, he has become aware of electrical use. Laundry is washed on windy days when the turbine produces the most electricity.
“You become conscious when it’s blowing like crazy. If you’re not using it, you’re just wasting it.”
He also uses other natural energy. Large south-facing windows on the family home take advantage of passive solar energy. The cattle waterers were designed to use ground heat and good insulation to stay ice free.
“A lot of people in the past relied on Mother Nature and worked with it. We’ve become complacent with cheap energy.”
Bill Van Rootselaar of Granum, Alta., was a pioneer in wind energy. After a year of paperwork and red tape, his two second-hand wind turbines began producing energy for the province’s electrical power grid in 1989.
“This was blazing a new frontier at that time,” said Van Rootselaar.
He sold all the power to the grid. He then bought energy from traditional sources for his dairy farm and irrigation operation. The income generated from the turbines offset about 20 percent on his electrical costs.
“We use lots of energy both for irrigation and for our dairy operation. We wanted to look for ways to save dollars.”
After 20 years of turning wind into electricity, the second-hand turbines were unhooked from the grid this year.
“It comes a time when the repairs cost more than the return we were going to get,” he said.
At a cost of $1 million to $1.5 million to buy, he’s unsure if they will be replaced soon.
“We’re looking to upgrade them at the right price. At this moment it’s not affordable.”
New models catch every breath of wind, compared to his turbines that ran only 15 to 30 percent of the time, even though Granum is in a windy area.
“We’re way too windy as far as I’m concerned. It really nails us. We get some fairly significant wind.”
