Article published Apr 21, 2008

Montana company refurbishing turbines, including those in Martinsdale

Two Dot Wind doesn't use new turbines manufactured in Europe like the big companies.

Instead, it buys old turbines from California or Denmark and refurbishes them, like it did the 19 towers located on the Martinsdale Colony.

All of the refurbishing work is done in Montana, with Montana labor, said Dave Healow, one of the Billings-based company's owners.

"It's basically Montana's only wind industry," said Healow, a physician and third-generation Montanan. "The rest of it is all trucked in and put up here."

So far, the company has developed small wind power projects near Two Dot and Martinsdale. Healow said it's not his goal to build the state's biggest wind farm.

"Just like everybody has a chicken coop, everybody will have a wind farm," Healow said.

The company has about 10,000 acres under lease for wind development projects in Musselshell, Big Horn, Yellowstone and Garfield counties.

It's planning additional smaller projects, as well as some bigger ones.

Healow said there's no reason the 20-year-old turbines his company uses need to be scrapped.

"We're just built small," Healow said of the company. "We have a different way of operating."

— Karl Puckett