Article published Jan 23, 2008

County shop will be powered by wind turbine

By KIM SKORNOGOSKI

Tribune Staff Writer

When the new Cascade County shop complex is finished in June, it will be powered largely by a new wind turbine.

County commissioners voted Tuesday to hire a Bozeman-based company to install a 100-foot-tall lattice tower with three 23-foot-long rotor blades at the shop off Interstate 15 northwest of Great Falls.

The project will cost $192,179, including a feasibility study that has already been paid for. Commissioners hope to lower the cost by applying for a $10,000 grant through NorthWestern Energy. The turbine will cost $135,000. The balance of the bill is to ship and install it.

The 50-kilowatt turbine will generate between 75,000 and 95,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually, according to county officials.

The idea mirrors Liberty County, which powers its county shop with a wind turbine.

Using a study of electricity usage over the past five years at the existing Road and Bridge Department shop on 3rd Street Northwest, Western Community Energy officials estimated the new shop will need 92,000 kilowatt hours each year.

At that rate, the county should be able to repay the up-front investment through energy savings over the next 22 to 25 years, said Brian Clifton, the county's planning director.

"We hopefully will be able to get most of the energy we need to run the shop out there (from the wind turbine), so it should be very energy efficient and economical," Clifton said.

County Commissioner Peggy Beltrone said the law restricts government from producing and selling excess wind power, so the turbine will be smaller scale than commercial ones, such as those found at the wind farm in Judith Gap.

Work began on the $6.4 million county shop complex at 278 Vaughn South Frontage Road in September.

The 42,800-square-foot facility will house the Road and Bridge, Solid Waste and Weed and Mosquito departments. The 12-acre site doubles the size of the old county shop.