Have you ever run full speed into a brick wall? That was about the way it felt at the end of Sept when we heard from the USDA- WI that they ran out of money and our grant application was not going to be funded in 2009. We had worked really hard coordinating multiple vendors for their part from GDS Associates, 7th Generation Wind, our accounting firm Carlson & Halpern in Lake Geneva and a grant writer- total spend about $6,000 to get it turned in by the deadline. So the just say no when the political signs all seemed pointed in the just say yes direction really sucked the wind from our sails since my wife Catherine and I consider the wind turbine to be a main statement and centerpiece for the net zero hotel and the turbine is not a good investment without that grant. On the bright side we did get a $100,000 grant from Focus on Energy but that leaves us $96,000 short. It became time to rethink our plans.
Apparantly every project for a grant of $20,000 and under was awarded and then we learned that if we had asked for a loan guarantee and a grant instead of just the grant, we perhaps could have made it becuase we would have earned 10 points.
On the bright side- we now could be pretty decent grant writers for ourselves and others going forward.
It’snot that we have not been busy- actually I have been too busy trying to make money to get past the preparation of the project to starting to get the project being built. We are finally getting to that stage with our wind turbine expecting to go up in February- The previous year was battling anti-wind ordinances which ended up costing $36,000 in legal fees to get through zoning. All I can say when the truck came to deliver the Endurance 50kw 120 monopole is really cool. It’s great to get that little boy in a toy store feeling as an adult. Now we have to find someone who can do time lapse photography to be able to show the whole installation.
First, I want to apologize to the number of trees that had to be turned in to paper in order to complete the USDA grant for renewable energy. The complexity of the grant when you reach almost $400,000 in total project costs is amazing. We had an overall summary, technical feasability study from a 3rd party, overall feasability study including marketing, economic, and the CPA do do the financial feasbility. Then you add in letters of support (thanks to the folks at www.renewwisconsin.org and www.focusonenergy.com ) and GDS Associates who made time in their schedule to squeeze our report in.
We chose a 50kw wind turbine made by Endurance Wind. We had looked at a 100kw but because of the wind resource our area is, doubling the size does not double the output. The was a $150,000 to $200,000 difference for only 30,000 more kwh projected to be produced. At $.08 per kwh, that would take 60 years or more for the added payback. Actually it would only be about 40 years after the tax benefits.
It is important to take advantage of the grants and tax benefits that exist because without them the market would never develop. But I guess we need to make sure we prepare a few months ahead to get it done. Of course it was July 14th when we finally had the final vote from Walworth County to approve our zoning change and Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for the wind turbine and the entire Inn.
Environmental benefits of our wind turbine over 20 years- saving 4,400,000 lbs of CO2, 11,400 lbs of NOX, 24,400 lbs of SO2 and stop the burning of 1,000 tons of coal. Later we will go through the economics and how the money works on wind.
We are starting to prepare for a number of shows to get The Green Leaf Inn project out in front of like minded people. More info at www.greenfestivals.org Last year 35,000 people attended the show. With our plans to condo-tel our building and all of the renewable energy systems- perhaps we can find potential investors interested in owning a piece of a net zero hotel for the revenue, tax benefits and pride of owning something unique.
Catherine and I spoke on going green, renewable energy and developing our net zero energy hotel at the Women’s Resource Fair in Lake Geneva and The Smart Growth and Going Green sponsored by the Walworth County Realtors Association. The realtors show was great for some contacts since we are planning on condo-teling or selling the hotel rooms to investors including a fractional ownership in the wind turbine, solar, CHP unit etc for the income and tax benefits through real esatte brokers. Of course we are looking at using realtors that have their green certification.
March 25th we are presenting at the Renewable Energy Summit up in Milwaukee. More info at the Renew Wisconsin website.
I do want to say thanks to Focus on Energy. They manage the state rebates and energy assessments for WI to help expand renewable energy and energy efficiency in the state. They have paid 50% of our solar thermal, wind, and home energy audit for our project preparation. A lot of people don’t even know they exist or what resources resources they offer. I think our project will go a long way with helping expose people to what can be done.
We are just learning what other benefits exist and hope that we can take advantage to help fund our project.
