Winds of Change - OVEC Switches to Wind Power, So Can You

Each of us can help bring an end to mountaintop removal by switching over to cleaner electricity sources right now. The only equipment you’ll need is a telephone.

"Switching to clean electricity takes minutes," said Peter Adels with PennFuture  during his Coal Summit "Alternatives to Coal" speech.

All it took was one phone call and now the OVEC office is officially wind-powered. (Please refrain from any wisecracks about how long we have long been powered by hot air.)

We called Community Energy, Inc.,  at (484) 654-0106. The Pennsylvania company sells 100 kilowatt-hour blocks of wind power for $2.50 per month to West Virginia residents.

The OVEC office uses 300 to 500 kW-hrs of electricity monthly. We agreed to purchase five 100 kW-hr blocks of power each month, ensuring that our office usage is more than offset by wind-generated power. So we are paying $12.50 more monthly (on top of our regular electricity charge) to ensure that we don’t blow up the mountains every time we turn on the computers. That’s one of the best bargains you’ll ever find!

For a typical home, the cost will be around $10-$20 per month. Check your electric bill to see how many kW-hrs you use every month. Remember, the cost for wind power is an additional $2.50 per 100 kW-hr per month.

Community Energy purchases power from two existing wind farms close to Pittsburgh. When the Backbone Mountain, WV, wind farm project is complete, Community Energy will sell that power to West Virginia customers as well. Wind farmers, people who lease their land to companies that erect wind mills, receive $2,000 per machine per year.

The electrical grid system is a somewhat complicated concept, but it helps to envision electricity as water, and the electric grid as a vast, interconnected series of pipes. Power plants are like pumps pushing water onto the grid, and customer homes and offices are like bathtubs consuming the water. Picture a network of pipes with multiple pumps supplying water onto the grid for hundreds of bathtubs.

Only as much water as people use can be pushed into the pipes, but as demand rises, the power plants can push more onto the grid. Meters at the points where supply pipes join the grid track who has produced how much, and a meter at your home determines your bill.

These water-pumping plants compete with one another, so a plant that pushes more onto the grid makes more money. So, if OVEC purchases water from a specified supplier (in this case, wind power), then that water keeps water from another supplier (a coal-fired power plant) OFF the grid.

Wind energy is already creating new jobs in West Virginia. Specialized Power Systems will hire 80 people to build 750 kW wind turbines in the old Coca-Cola bottling plant in Huntington. In a 12-mph wind, each turbine is capable of supplying the energy needs of 165 homes. Wind power is also supplying land owners with income, cleaning up the air and helping to protect our mountains from the outrageous practice of MTR.

Switch today to wind energy. You’ll help support clean energy; and best of all, you’ll help save our mountains!