LORDSTOWN - The village administration building could become a wind farm, should two state and federal grant applications win approval.
Council members have agreed to set aside $13,000 toward the village's share of a $130,000 project that would bring two 96-foot high wind turbines to property near the village administration building on Salt Springs Road. And if the plan becomes a reality, the village could save about $550 per month on administrative power bills, a savings of about 50 percent, according to Lordstown Planning and Zoning Administrator Ron Barnhart. The figure is from the building's power usage during the summer months.
''I've been interested in alternative energy like wind and solar power. I thought wind power would be better for us,'' Barnhart said.
The village is working on grants with Alliance-based Wind Turbines of Ohio. The goal is to get 90 percent of the project funded through an Ohio Department of Development grant and a grant from the federal Appalachian Regional Commission. If approved, the twin turbines could go up sometime in the spring, Barnhart said.
The two turbines under consideration would cost about $65,000 each and are 10 kilowatt models made by Bergey Windpower of Oklahoma.
But the question that remains is whether Lordstown has enough wind to make the venture worthwhile.
"Eastern Ohio does not support utility-grade turbines," said Greg Courtney, owner of Wind Turbines of Ohio, referencing large megawatt-producing wind turbines most people are familiar with. "But all of Ohio has sufficient wind for a classification of small wind turbines, meaning 100 kilowatts and less."
Courtney - who has been putting up wind turbines in Ohio since 2007 - founded his company in June 2008. He's also a real-estate broker who owns more than 300 apartments and a banquet center, he said. He said he thought an installation business for wind power could be profitable after seeing wind turbines in the Columbia River Gorge. His Web site documents the small turbines he helped install throughout the Mahoning Valley.
Courtney said the turbine Lordstown is considering starts producing electricity in winds of about 8 mph. He believes, according to wind study charts from AWS True Wind, which has done contract work with the state, Lordstown has an annual average wind speed of about 14 mph. According to additional maps from AWS True Wind provided by the Ohio Department of Development, it appears Lordstown has annual average wind speeds of at least 12 mph.
Courtney believes the village can get 25-kw hours per year from each turbine.
Lordstown isn't the first public entity in the region to try wind power. Western Reserve Schools in Berlin Center has had three small wind turbines up for about one month, according to Superintendent Chuck Swindler. They were installed by Tri County Tower Service, which is based in Austintown, he said.
The turbines start producing electricity in winds of 3 mph; at a height of 110-feet, the wind averages about 11 mph. Swindler said it's too early to tell what the savings on the school's electricity would be, though he hopes for about 20 percent. Power generated by the turbines goes into the grid, and the balance of the power generated to what the school doesn't use - when the lights are off over summer vacation, for example- is credited to the school's future power bill, Swindler said.
Swindler said the district was cautious before putting up the towers, researching windspeeds on school grounds for about three years. The district put up a test turbine, which charted the day's windspeeds and came up with an average.
"Not every site is suitable just because of location and so on. We're near the highest point in Mahoning County," he said.
Courtney said he thought a test site would not be necessary in Lordstown. The wind-speed research has already been done, he said.
"The wind charts that are available are accurate to one tenth of a mile per hour," he said.
