A wind-energy turbine — the first of its kind on the North Olympic Peninsula — was erected last week, towering 100 feet over its relatively small space on the sprawling Sequim Valley Ranch.
“It will turn all the power out for the maintenance facility here,” ranch manager Lyle Hagen said Friday as West Seattle Natural Energy owner Keith Hughes put finishing touches on the computer control panel installation at the base of the tower topped by a rotor blade of about 20 feet long.
Once the tower was erected using a large crane Thursday, it became a highly visible landmark from Schmuck Road and the grain and grass fields surrounding it north of Washington Harbor.
The 700-acre ranch northeast of Sequim, which sits in the grazing path of Sequim’s elk herd, is at
184 Coulter Road.
Hagen said the wind turbine is another step in “going green” at the ranch, which already is using biodiesel from used food oil it buys from Las Palomas Mexican Restaurant in Sequim, which makes for about 80 percent of the ranch’s fuel needs.
He said there are plans to grow vegetables that produce oil for making biodiesel, such as Jerusalem artichokes and radishes, at the ranch that grows timber for buildings on the ranch, and crops including wheat, grass hay, lavender and iris bulbs.
“We’re pretty excited about it,” Hagen said, preparing to barbecue elk burgers nearby for the ranch’s work crew of himself and four others, plus the wind turbine installation team of five.
Hagen declined to identify his boss. Stephen Clapp is listed as “governing person” of the ranch and Mark Anderson is named as the ranch’s agent in the Washington Secretary of State’s corporations records.
Hagen said it took eight months to deliver the foreign-made turbine, American-made tower and technical equipment that will allow the ranch to monitor the turbine’s speed and read weather data from a station at top.
The computer system relays weather information, wind speed and rotor revolutions per minute through a wireless system.
Added to that was the process to secure Clallam County permits.
“It’s the first one here, so the permit process was a challenge for the county,” Hagen said.
Hughes, whose company has been installing solar arrays for about four years, was marking the first time it had installed a wind turbine.
“It’s a very robust wind machine,” he said, with sophisticated system that can handle winds up to 72 mph, but is programmed to shut down at 60 mph should freak high winds off the Strait of Juan de Fuca blast through the area.
The winds will average output of about 11 kilowatts of power but the system is capable of producing up to 18 kilowatts maximum, Hughes said.
At 11 kilowatts, the turbine is capable of generating up to 13,500 kilowatt hours a year, which is equal to the amount of powering an average home and a half uses, he gave as an example.
The turbine was built by Gaia Wind of Denmark and the three-legged tower was built by Rohn Towers in Michigan, he said.
The three feet of the tower are each embedded on large concrete pillars atop a buried concrete 18- by18-foot foundation to a depth of six feet.
Such a wind turbine and tower system costs in the range of $140,000 and the owner receives the same 30 percent tax credit as solar arrays.
For every kilowatt generated, Hughes said, the Clallam County Public Utility District pays back 12 cents under the state rebate system.
“A production credit gets paid whether it’s used or not,” Hughes said.
“That makes it very viable.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2390, extension 5052 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
