So long as the wind is 5 mph or more, the turbine will generate power for the Rosenbergers’ all-electric home, feeding any excess back into electric transmission lines.
“This was the perfect size for our needs,” said Rosenberger, who works as a mechanical engineer at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
He said he expects the turbine to generate about 12 megawatt hours over the course of the year.
“That’s about how much electricity we use.”
None of the controversy generated by a proposal to install commercial-size turbines in Champaign County attended the Wednesday event. Instead, friends gathered around a fire in the front yard, sipped hot chocolate and, before it was raised, signed the tower with an indelible marker.
Rosenberger said that after considering renewable energy “for a long time,” changes in state and federal laws made this the right moment.
Of the total cost of $54,000, a state energy grant will cover $25,000. Rosenberger said the removal of the federal cap on renewable energy tax credits reduced his personal cost about $20,000, which he said would have taken about 12 years to recoup.
He then discovered a Public Utilities Commission of Ohio program “where I can sell renewable energy credits to the utilities at a higher than market cost, so break-even could be around six years.”
Living on 8 acres zoned for agriculture, he said it took two days to get zoning approval, and although issuing building and electrical permits for a turbine were new to Clark County officials, “they gave it very serious consideration, and they worked with us.”
When he stood beneath a similar turbine in Indiana, “I couldn’t hear it over the wind, so I don’t think there should be a lot of complaints,” Rosenberger said. “In fact, the neighbors are excited” and two or three are “seriously considering it themselves.”
“This isn’t necessarily a green thing or a carbon-offset thing,” he added, “but it’s the right thing to do.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0368 or tstafford@coxohio.com.
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