There is no real economic drive for places to put in fueling stations for alternative fuels until there are enough alternative fuel vehicles that need the fuel so it makes economic sense for the investment.
Since The Green Leaf Inn is to be that sustainable solution, we will be reviewing and ordering a natural gas fueling station and an electric fueling station over the next two weeks and placing are orders to get installed before Ecofair360 so they can be art of the energy tour from the fairgrounds. And GLI is looking for a natural gas fueled van or mini-bus. It will be interesting to see what is around and how the tax incentives all work.
There is a ton of stuff happening but every once in awhile you have to stop and just be amazed at life. I was running around trying to get to work and I look out the front window of what is called The Cottage and there running across our front yard- about 70 feet away were four male turkeys running across the yard. That of course got our three Brittany Spaniels excited.
I guess that is part of the experience we are trying to create for www.thegreenleafinn.com – a place where couples can have time to rest and relax and enjoy each other – sustainable building for a sustainable relationship.
Wow- didn’t see that one coming and I have heard a lot of them. Conditional Use Permit public discussion gives everyone a chance to voice their opinions and feelings. The letter the town sent out had this project involves a wind turbine in extra large bold print so I guess we could have expected something. In reality, the person was upset because he bought a piece of property and thought the world would never change around him- then he gets a notice that the hwy 50 will be expanding in several years to 4 lanes and the road will wipe out all of his trees blocking the road and basically allow him to hand a cup of coffee to someone driving down the road. A car at 300 feet at 40 mph is 55 db and since their house will be 20 feet off the hwy, those bumble bees could be used to drown out the noise of the traffic. And then they realize our project is moving ahead.
We had been pretty upset about the hwy 50 expansion notice and then one member on the town board said that hwy 50 corridor was meant to go all commercial as part of the town’s long term land use plans. We got handed a lemon and decided to make a lemonade stand called The Green Leaf Inn.
The main buildings will be named for their main sustainable energy or environmental system. The west building will be fed by the wind turbine. We actually expect to be generating more energy then we will consume for this building. For our size turbine, Alliant Energy does not offer net metering so we get stuck paying retail and selling to the utility at wholesale.
The perfect south facing building is Fire since it is the solar energy building. This building will have solar photovoltaic and two types of solar thermal (we will be installing 3 solar thermal systems- concentrating, flat plate and evacuated tube). The solar electric will also include a ground mounted system dual axis tracking. Total electric output is expected to be 10kW. Because of the super energy efficiency building and energy equiment, we expect to be selling this power back to the utility as well. However, Alliant has applied for a special buy rate that would pay us over double the current electric rates we pay. That will help financially.
The existing home being converted is the water building since it will have a large above ground cistern. It will also have some solar but minimal.
The energy welcome and conference center is earth for the ground source heat pump that will be located here. This building will be the main energy focus since it will include the ground source heat pump, biomass gasifier for hot water, heat and will be couple with a combined heat and power system with part of the hot water used with an absorption chiller for part of our air conditioning.
We did our presentation to the Delavan Planning commission which gave us an endorsement for the Green Leaf Inn. Our next meeting goes to Walworth County Planning Commission- and that just starts the cycle. But each meeting helps us learn more and focus on what needs to be done.
Catherine was pushing for a rain garden on the east side of the property. When there are heavy rains, the water from the parkinglot next to us all drains and rushes in a stream through our property, ultimately pooling in our woods before slowly moving on into Delavan Lake. The rain garden will help us slow the stormwater movement so that more of it can make its way into the soil to replenish the groundwater and reduce surface run off into the watershed.
Our project will include substantial above and below ground rain water storage. This reduces the energy used in pumping new water from our well and the energy used for Delavan waste water treatment plant.
Of course our main stormwater treatment system is an engineered pond and swails that will treat and clen the water moving through our property (a bigfarm behind us drains into our property and agricultural fertilizer runoff is a major problem)
And we are always open for any ideas.
The bad economy and bank rescue plan (not supposed to say bailout) actually had some silver lining. The extension and some improvement to the renewable energy and energy efficiency incentives was finally attached and passed along withthe rescue plan. It’s about time since green energy has been one positive spot in creating new jobs from manuafacturing to installation. A new economy is beginning to develop. However, green energy requires a huge capital investment up front so the health and liquidity of the ban/finance industry could become a huge road block to continued development.
Our solar site assessment provided for locations for solar thermal and photovoltaic. We are waiting for the update because the report did not yet include our center building that will be powered by solar. With appromximately 1,000 sq feet of roof, we should be abale to have about 10 kW of panels. Hopefully Alliant Energy will get their buyback tariff passed for solar in chich case we will sell all of the power back to Alliant if we can. Next week we are headed to San Diego, CA for the Solar Intl show. I will be like a little kid in a toy store. I just have bigger and expensive toys!
Small Wind is 1kW to 100kW in output. It seems that the installation companies tend to be 20 kW and smaller and those that will install systems over 20kW. What is amazing was we sent out a request for installation quote and many companies were already overbooked and the ability to obtain systems in the 35 kW to 100 kW is almost non-existent. That is a problem but also an opportunity for someone wanting to set up for manuafacturing. We need more installation and maintenance people and turbine suppliers. There are good paying jobs available in a new green economy.
We went to the Madison Farmers Market – great to buy locally to save transport costs an dkeep momey locally. A great book is Small Is Beutifull by E. F Shcumacher.
We got our wind report for the property. Small wind (0-100kw) is still very expensive. There is not the volume in mfg to get the prices down. The report is posted – the tax benefits for renewable energy were renewed but for small wind- the benefits were not as good as hoped. Small wind gets 30% tax credit with a cap of $4,000 which means for anything above 2kw there is no real benefit. Since we are planning a 50 to 100 kw- that is very drustrating.
