By Linda Lipp, Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly
lindal@fwbusiness.com
When Indiana residents think of windmills, they tend to picture the old wooden structures used by early settlers and still found on many Amish farms.
The modern wind turbines that Fort Wayne architect Steve Park is involved in creating for clients such as the Culver Academy and Northridge High School in Middlebury bear very little resemblance to those early designs.
Today's commercial windmills are steel towers that rise 165 to 330 feet above the ground, with three blades that each measure more than 130 feet in length. Although they rotate at just 17 revolutions per minute, they reach a speed of 178 miles per hour at the tip of each blade and can generate three megawatts of electrical power.
They also cost $3 million to $4 million apiece to build.
Last fall, Park stepped back as a partner in Moake Park Group, the architecture firm he helped found, in order to devote more time to a new environmentally oriented venture, Basic Elements. One of the founders of the Northeast Indiana Green Build Coalition, Park still works for Moake Park as an employee and runs Basic Elements out of the firm's downtown offices.
The two businesses complement each other, because Basic Elements "is doing things that Moake Park doesn't do or doesn't want to do," Park said. "But there's some days I wish I could clone myself about 10 times."
Although wind turbines would seem to be more the purview of an engineer than an architect, "in a lot of respects, I'm really more like a facilitator," Park added.
For an old source of energy, there has been relatively little research done about the potential risks and rewards of wind power. The construction of huge wind turbines presents its own environmental challenges, for example. The ground must support not only the heavy structures, but the equipment used to bring them in and erect them.
The churning blades generate noise and may threaten bat and bird populations, although studies now indicate the latter learn to adapt.
"The wind industry wants to be a very environmentally conscious industry," Park said.
Although Benton County has a wind field that eventually will have 100 wind turbines, and developers are vying to build another one in Clinton County, the state has lagged other parts of the country in the development of wind power.
Part of the reason is that electrical power is relatively inexpensive here, compared to states such as California and Illinois, Park noted. And part of the reason is that early studies of wind patterns in the state seemed to indicate the power of the winds wasn't sufficient to make wind turbines feasible.
That's true when the wind turbines are built at a height of 165 feet, Park said. But studies have found the wind currents at 330 feet are much better, so utility-grade wind turbines built to that height work well at many sites in the state.
"In Indiana, we've found the height is very important," Park said.
Today's windmills are classified in three levels. The highest, development-level wind turbines, are built in fields in multiples and generate power that utility companies can use to supply a large number of customers.
Community windmills may be the same size as the developmental wind turbines, but they are built singly or in pairs to power a smaller area, industry or institution.
Much smaller wind turbines, which cost about $30,000 to build, are used for individual farms or residences.
The Culver and Northridge projects, which are still in the early stages of planning, both fall into the community wind turbine category.
Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne plans to incorporate some form of non-utility-grade wind turbine into the redevelopment of an old building on the former Indiana State Developmental Center property to create a construction lab that will have a net zero draw on the area's power grid. Park has been involved in that project, which also will also use active and passive solar and geothermal power components.
Park's work at Culver began with a $12-million equestrian center he designed at Moake Park. "We're trying to incorporate green elements," he said.
It included the use of sustainable lumber in the new facility, and the recycling and eventual reuse of 5,000 linear feet of native, rough-sewn oak salvaged from the old stable.
The wind turbine will follow in that vein, and will be used not only to generate power for the private school, but as an educational component for students.
The IPFW and Northridge wind turbines will serve an educational purpose as well as supply power. Right now, that's the only way the costs really can be justified, Park said.
Park and other supporters of wind power are also hoping for passage of House Bill 6401, which will make wind power more feasible, in part, by standardizing some of the rules under which utilities buy back excess power from wind turbine owners.
Ultimately, Park sees wind power not only as an environmentally friendly way to generate power, but as a way to revolutionize the energy industry and create new jobs.