The Cook County Local Energy Project (CCLEP) will celebrate its second birthday later this spring, and like a baby moose, it got up on its legs very quickly. With five working groups, it has accomplished a lot, but co-founder George Wilkes would like to see it gain momentum.
“This is hard work,” Wilkes said at a January 21, 2010 informational meeting. “It’s a really big stone to roll.” He is happy with the connections that have been made so far and hopes for continued growth. The group is looking for new board members as well as people to participate in the working groups: solar, wind, biomass, energy efficiency, and transportation.
CCLEP has obtained numerous grants and hopes to land one that can pay for an administrator to help further its goals.
Compared to most nonprofits just starting out, what they’ve accomplished has been significant, said Buck Benson, the other co-founder. Their goals are big, their dreams are big.
Solar
Don Grant of the solar working group said federal tax credits are available for energy initiatives such as the installation of solar energy systems for heat and electricity. Making use of the sun can be done as simply as installing windows that amplify passive solar heat.
The solar working group has obtained funding for solar-heated hot water in a bathhouse in the Grand Marais Rec Park and educational poster boards to accompany them. One of Grant’s dreams is to see the golf carts at Gunflint Hills Golf Course powered with solar energy.
Homebuilder Steve Holz said he just installed a solar power system in a house that will provide all the electricity the house will need. It cost $25,000, and the homeowners will get a 30% tax credit for it.
Grant’s own house gets all its electricity from the sun from April through November. It’s the angle of the sun and tendency toward cloudier days, not the cold, that reduce his house’s capacity to capture solar energy in winter months, he said. Holz added that photovoltaics actually work more efficiently in cool weather.
Wind
Theidea of capturing wind power is gathering energy around the country. Jeremy Lopez of the wind working group said that seven or eight large wind turbines could generate the approximately 10 megawatts of power used in Cook County each year. Permitting regulations are more complicated with wind power systems that generate more than five megawatts of power, however, so the wind power working group is looking at wind for a portion of the county’s energy supply.
Finding the right location is tricky. It has to be a place with significant wind, where landowners would allow it, that would have minimal impact on migrating birds, and that has access to electrical lines. Two promising sites have been identified and more are being investigated, most along the first or second ridges of the Sawtooth Mountains.
Large turbines are much more efficient than small ones, Lopez said. As the propeller size increases, the amount of energy that can be captured increases exponentially. Newer wind turbines are quieter than older ones.
“We’re a progressive town,” said Lopez, “and people understand that if they use energy, they need to produce energy.”
Grand Portage was working on getting wind power, Lopez said, but to build a one-megawatt tower, the community would need a transmission line, a high-cost item, so Grand Portage could buy or sell power when it had too much or too little.
Seeking wind power is the most complicated project CCLEP has undertaken, Buck Benson said, adding it’s amazing they’ve gotten this far.
Biomass
The biomass working group continues to study the feasibility of bringing biomass-generated heat and power to Cook County. Buck Benson would like to see Cook County generate and use its own biomass resources.
Thegroup has been working with the U.S. Forest Service, Firewise, and Minnesota’s Clean Energy Resource Teams.
One large project has been to investigate purchasing a biomassgenerated heat and power plant from Turboden, a company that has sold many such systems to small towns throughout Europe, at a cost of $11.2 million. Most of the cost, Benson said, would be for an electrical turbine, but the system’s payback would be limited by the city’s ability to sell its excess electricity.
A biomass plant would have all the resources it needs just from logging operation waste wood and forest fire fuel from around buildings and habituated areas, Benson said.
“It’s always a little tricky to figure out what people want and what they’re willing to accept in creating energy,” Benson said.
Energy efficiency
“The cheapest energy is the energy you never use.” That’s the motto of the energy efficiency working group.
The group has come up with 12 simple ways to reduce energy use in the home, and the Grand Marais Public Utilities Commission offers rebates for customers who purchase the products needed to implement those ideas: gaskets on outlets in exterior walls; water heater blankets; power strips to turn off multiple electronic devices; pipe insulation; clothesline for hanging clothes outside to dry; weather stripping; watersaving shower heads; door sweeps; caulk for around windows and doors; shrink wrap for windows; expanding foam; and programmable thermostats.
Karen Blackburn of the energy efficiency working group suggested that people donate curly light bulbs to the Food Shelf as a way to help others decrease energy use and costs.
The group has received a grant for an energy-efficiency curriculum for area schools and another for PUC-sponsored energy audit parties that can help fund energy efficiency upgrades. Blackburn would like to offer a class on green building techniques for local contractors seeking recertification.
Transportation
The transportation working group is in full swing, with a ridesharing website in the works thanks to a $4,000 Lloyd K. Johnson grant. People could also use the site if they would like someone to pick something up for them when they’re going somewhere.
Another of this group’s goals is to create better walkways in towns throughout the county.
According to the CCLEP website, transportation accounts for 30% of America’s energy use.
The work of CCLEP may seem slow at first, but as the nation pursues new technology, the pursuit of renewable sources of energy is likely to gather momentum like a stone rolling down a hill.
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