Being laid off didn’t stop Linda Norbut Suits from doing what she and her husband, Duston, felt was
necessary.
After a tornado three years ago ripped through Loami, where the couple lives
with their two daughters, and destroyed their barn, Linda and Duston decided
renewable energy should be part of the rebuild.
Solar was very expensive so they settled on a wind turbine. Even after Linda, a
curator with the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, was laid off last year
when several historic sites were temporarily shut down, they moved ahead with
the project, which she said costs about as much as a new car.
“There’s a payback period but it’ll save us money,” Linda explains. “But it was just the right thing to do.”
They aren’t exactly energy hogs anyway. They run window air conditioning units as little
as possible, dry laundry outdoors on a clothesline and in the winter get much
of their heat from a wood stove. Linda also works a four-day work schedule and
carpools when she can.
Two weeks ago, they flipped the switch on their new wind turbine. In the time
the blades have been spinning, the turbine has produced about 23 kilowatt hours
of electricity and prevented 24.1 pounds of carbon from being emitted into the
atmosphere. That’s according to computer software that tracks both energy output and RPMs of the
turbine in real time.
The energy generated is credited by their utility company, Rural Electric
Convenience Cooperative in Auburn. If the turbine generates more electricity
than the family uses, the utility buys it back.
The Suitses have been told that theirs is one of the first to be erected under
Sangamon County zoning rules for windmills.
The structure, about 60 feet in height, isn’t tall enough to necessitate an environmental impact study under the rules
(though a variance was required to place the turbine within 100 feet of their
home).
So far they haven’t had any of the problems often attributed to wind turbines. The ground below
isn’t strewn with the carcasses of birds and bats nor has anyone in the family
complained of constant ringing said to be caused by the whoosh of the blades.
“Feral cats kill more birds than wind turbines,” Linda says. And only their dog, Sweet Potato, seems to be frightened by the
sound, which is most pronounced when standing directly beneath the windmill.
Despite its relative noiselessness, the turbine has created buzz among curious
neighbors in the area, which prompted the Suitses to plan an open house for
sometime in September. County zoning officials as well as the Champaign-based
contractor who installed the windmill will be on hand to answer questions.
The Suits’s smaller scale experience might also serve to address concerns about the
proposed Meridian One Wind Farm being planned for their area. It has ignited
controversy among neighbors in western Sangamon County.
Linda says she has questions about the wind farm project but doesn’t oppose it. Nor does she consider ubiquitous windmills to be a panacea for our
energy needs.
“The way we should go is everybody should use less,” she says.
Contact R.L. Nave at rnave@illinoistimes.com
This article appears in Jul 30 – Aug 5, 2009.
