It's no longer, 'Is it going to happen?'" he said. "It is happening. I want very badly for Northwest Ohio, including Allen, Putnam and Paulding counties, to be in the thick of it."
Government push
Ohio's alternative energy movement got the wind at its back last May, when Gov. Ted Strickland signed Senate Bill 221 into law.
The law requires 25 percent of the electricity sold by Ohio's investor-owned utilities come from alternative energy sources by 2025. Of that, 12.5 percent must come from renewable sources, such as solar, biomass fuel and wind.
Grants came along afterward. Residences and small farms are eligible for a $25,000 grant if one of Ohio's four largest investorowned utilities, AEP-Ohio, Dayton Power & Light, Duke Energy or FirstEnergy, serves them. Businesses could receive incentives up to $150,000 for smaller turbines.
"We're excited to go into renewables," said Shelly Clark, a spokeswoman for AEP Ohio covering Northwest Ohio. "Initially we were going in this direction more slowly, but the state and federal government got involved. It makes it more pronounced how viable renewal energy is, even in the state of Ohio."
The federal government then enacted a tax credit, where owners of small wind farms with 100 kilowatts of capacity and less could receive a credit for 30 percent of the total installed cost of a system. That marked the first federal incentive for small wind systems since 1985, according to the Tax Incentives Assistance Project Web site.
U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, RUrbana, said he approves of an "all-of-the above" energy strategy, which he calls the "common-sense energy approach." He has concerns about government intervention, though.
"The government didn't force us from riding a horse to riding an automobile. The government didn't force us to go from the typewriter to the computer," Jordan said. "It's always been market innovation that has gotten us real advances in our economy."
Looking for payback
The incentives offer a lot of money, but wind turbines require a lot of up-front cost too. The incentives are paid after-the-fact.
While Carder, an Elida native, likes to quip, "The wind is free, at least for now," the systems he sells aren't. A 5-kilowatt wind turbine costs $50,000 to $55,000. A 10-kilowatt system costs another $6,000 to $8,000. Someone springing for a 30-kilowatt turbine could spend $70,000 for a complete installation.
"My concern now is the payback," Dodds said. "If you're looking at a $50,000 unit and a $25,000 grant, the payback on the other $25,000 is the question. That's a lot of money."
Carder said most people should see a payback in eight to 10 years, assuming their monthly electric bills are at least $150 a month. His company installed three turbines so far, with another two set to go up this summer.
Al Gill, who runs a dog kennel outside Uniopolis, has a keen interest in wind power and lives in the highwind corridor. Still, the upfront cost concerns him.
"We use about $600 a month in electric just for the kennel, not including our house," he said. "It would pay for itself, without a doubt. We have constant wind out there that's terrible.
