Reprinted from

State Auditor Rebecca Otto and husband harness wind power with turbine
 

Thursday, 25 October 2007
by T.W. Budig
ECM capitol reporter

A whirling intermediary translates the sky over State Auditor Rebecca Otto’s home.

Otto and her husband screenwriter Shawn Lawrence Otto became interested in the intermediary, wind power, more than a decade ago after studying a report on the potential of generating power from the force swaying the trees.

Minnesota is the Saudi Arabia of wind, the Union of Concerned Scientists declared.

“That piqued our interest,” said Otto recently, sitting in the kitchen of a home in Marine on the St. Croix warmed by earth and sun and in winter, a big arm load of super-dry wood.

A decade ago, Otto laughingly explained, the idea of people wanting to power their homes with a wind turbine pretty much assured them the title of “tree huger.”

The idea was by no means embraced.

“It took six months to get it through (the township board) and the neighbors were fighting it,” Otto recalled.

Might pop up like weeds

“One of the comments back then was kind of fun — ‘These things might pop up like weeds,’” she said. “I said to myself, ‘Now wouldn’t that be great,’” said Otto.

Winning approval, the Ottos purchased a Jacobs Wind Energy System, Rebecca Otto hauling it home on a trailer.

They dug the trench for the power line — safety dictates a tower should be a distance away in case it topples — and invited friends over for a party to help erect the 80-foot tall wind tower.

Because the tower was used, they had it certified by an engineer.

When finally set, the 20-foot blades on the turbine began to spin. “They’re bigger than they look up in the air,” she said of the blades.

Otto compares the sound of the turbine to the rustle of the wind through the trees — agreeable.

“It’s really neat, because people grow to love it,” she said.

Piece of the energy puzzle

“They’re (wind turbines) beautiful,” she said. “It’s a piece of our energy puzzle,” said Otto.

Although the Otto home is still on the commercial power grid, the turbine provides about 80 percent of the electricity the family uses a year, Otto explained.

One recent Otto family electric bill was $1.54, she explained.

As might be suspected, July and August are usually the poorest months of the year in terms of wind.

Spring and fall can be good wind seasons, Otto explained, and winter winds, too, can excite the blades. Straight line winds are best, she noted.

But wind potential, depending on the location of trees or buildings, can vary from site to site, Otto explained.

“If you have 10 mile per hour winds everyday, you don’t make that much (power),” she said.

“So if somebody puts one (a turbine) up and they don’t have wind energy, they didn’t do their homework,” she said.

Turbines not without maintenance issues

Wind turbines are not without maintenance issues. Otto’s turbine took a lightning strike and required significant repair.

The oil in the turbine needs to be changed about once a year, Otto noted.

There are other maintenance concerns.

An onlooker, gazing up the rotating blades, might wonder if the turbine could spin itself to pieces in really strong wind.

But the turbine blades actually turn in high wind to prevent “free wheeling” or speeding too fast.

Wind energy is only one feature of the Otto home that draws on passive energy.

Part of the home is built into a hillside — geothermal heat — and windows allow for the maximum use of solar.

An eye to mass

The home was built with an eye to mass — a special German-built wood burner and the radiating potential of 1,000-pounds of firebrick warms the home in winter.

The temperature in the home can be in the eighties.

“We don’t feel bad about opening windows because it’s solar heating,” she said. “The sun is free. So is the wind,” said Otto.

The Ottos built their home not only to live their values but instruct — Rebecca Otto is a former science teacher.

They’ve received calls from people in other countries asking questions about wind power, said Otto.

“We don’t like to preach to people about it (living green) — we love to share it,” she Otto.