Renewable Energy with Shawn Dooling
Posted by Steve Frazier
Our Program on 1-11-11 was presented by Shawn Dooling, from Renewable Energy SD. They have officed in Excelsior for two years, first on Water Street, and more recently in the old police building (as opposed to the old old police building) behind Adele's.. Shawn and his family live in Shorewood near Howard's Point. Their company in the recently completed second year had $120 million dollars in revenue.
We've all seen hilltops in Western Minnesota, the Dakotas and Iowa covered with "wind farms" - large groupings of wind turbines. Shawn's company specializes in the placement of smaller units in limited numbers. They market 160 foot towers that are used by farmers, co-ops and other individual users to produce electricity for their own use and for sale to electric companies. Current units have a life span of about 25 years, and they pay for themselves in 5 to 7 years. With electric rate changes in the works, the payoff period is bound to decrease.. Currently (note the pun), the units they are marketing are made in the US (Kansas and New Jersey factories), and they are expecting to transfer to selling units made in Minnesota factories during 2011.
Wind-generated power is a backup source of electrical power and will never become the primary source of electricity in the United States, but the projections are that up to 30% of the power generated will be from wind turbines. Federal mandates are in place to "nudge" the power companies and co-ops to transfer a larger portion of their generating capacity from coal and nuclear plants to "greener" methods, and the best environmentally-friendly source outside of waterfalls and dams is wind generation. Each wind turbine generates as much electricity as 170,000 pounds of coal, and most of the power used in the Midwest is generated using coal.
Laws are in place in Minnesota that mandate that electric companies pay a fair rate to individual wind turbine companies for excess energy they sell to the power grid. This industry is growing at the present time, and Shawn indicated that their company is one of many in the wind turbine business that is currently hiring. (Story by Tad shaw and posting by Steve Frazier)
We've all seen hilltops in Western Minnesota, the Dakotas and Iowa covered with "wind farms" - large groupings of wind turbines. Shawn's company specializes in the placement of smaller units in limited numbers. They market 160 foot towers that are used by farmers, co-ops and other individual users to produce electricity for their own use and for sale to electric companies. Current units have a life span of about 25 years, and they pay for themselves in 5 to 7 years. With electric rate changes in the works, the payoff period is bound to decrease.. Currently (note the pun), the units they are marketing are made in the US (Kansas and New Jersey factories), and they are expecting to transfer to selling units made in Minnesota factories during 2011.
Wind-generated power is a backup source of electrical power and will never become the primary source of electricity in the United States, but the projections are that up to 30% of the power generated will be from wind turbines. Federal mandates are in place to "nudge" the power companies and co-ops to transfer a larger portion of their generating capacity from coal and nuclear plants to "greener" methods, and the best environmentally-friendly source outside of waterfalls and dams is wind generation. Each wind turbine generates as much electricity as 170,000 pounds of coal, and most of the power used in the Midwest is generated using coal.
Laws are in place in Minnesota that mandate that electric companies pay a fair rate to individual wind turbine companies for excess energy they sell to the power grid. This industry is growing at the present time, and Shawn indicated that their company is one of many in the wind turbine business that is currently hiring. (Story by Tad shaw and posting by Steve Frazier)