Mo. couple harnesses back yard wind power

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The Skystream Wind Generator wouldn't be hoisted into the air for another day on Nick and Diane Peckham's alpaca farm off Route K. The machine's pearl-white blades were still cradled in Styrofoam on a recent Tuesday, and workers were busy burying electric lines, but that didn't stop Nick Peckham from counting his kilowatts.

"Feel that?" he said, his steel-gray hair flopping in the wind. "Feels like 2 kilowatts to me."

Two kilowatts is the most electricity the windmill can generate an hour. Made by Southwest Wind Energy in Flagstaff, Ariz., the Skystream is designed for residential use in low-to-medium wind conditions.

When installation was complete it became the first windmill in the county tied to the electric grid through Boone Electric Cooperative lines. When the windmill is generating more power than the Peckhams can use -- in the middle of the night, for example -- the extra energy will be pumped back to Boone Electric's grid for others to use.

When the Peckhams use the electricity generated from the windmill, they aren't charged; when they pump electricity into the grid, they get a credit from Boone Electric.

Nick Peckham of Peckham & Wright Architects won't say how much the project is costing him. The Skystream cost about $5,000, but total costs including installation can vary from $8,000 to $16,000, he said.

Peckham believes the windmill will pay for itself in energy savings in about six years, but he's quick to point out that's not his main motivation.

'Common sense'

"We're farmers, or least Diane is," he said, motioning to his wife's alpaca operation. "If anything, this life teaches you common sense. And it just makes sense not to put all those carbons into the air if you don't have to."

From grinding grain to pumping water, windmills have been used in this country for hundreds of years. Looking for sources of renewable energy, scores of angular, modern windmills can be spotted across the country. But the wind wasn't tapped on a large scale in Missouri until last fall, when two Northwest Missouri men built Bluegrass Ridge, a 7,000-acre wind farm in Gentry County. Both Columbia Water and Light and Boone Electric buy a small percentage of their electricity from the wind farm.

Northwest Missouri is one of the few spots in the state where winds regularly blow harder than 13 mph at 50 meters off the ground. Boone County, like most of the state, has average wind speeds below 12.5 mph -- barely enough to tip the windmills. If he's lucky, said Chris Rohlfing of Boone Electric, the Peckhams' windmill will generate half of their needed electricity.

"We are in a very marginal area for wind generation," Rohlfing said. "To be honest, he's spending a lot of money to put this windmill up. If you're looking for a payback, if you're thinking you're going to put this thing up and sell the electricity back to the company and make a lot of money, you're going to be very disappointed."

Still, Rohlfing said, the addition of the windmill has exciting possibilities for the area. New technology has made it easier for individuals to connect to electric grids; Rohlfing expects two other residences with solar panels to connect to the grid in the coming months.

Rick Anderson, energy policy analyst for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, said he knows of three other individuals in the state who have grid-tied windmills.

"I think a trend is underway," he said. "We're seeing the technology get improved, and more and more people are now aware that wind is one of the ways that people can generate electricity."