First, I want to apologize to the number of trees that had to be turned in to paper in order to complete the USDA grant for renewable energy. The complexity of the grant when you reach almost $400,000 in total project costs is amazing. We had an overall summary, technical feasability study from a 3rd party, overall feasability study including marketing, economic,  and the CPA do do the financial feasbility. Then you add in letters of support (thanks to the folks at www.renewwisconsin.org and www.focusonenergy.com ) and GDS Associates who made time in their schedule to squeeze our report in.

We chose a 50kw wind turbine made by Endurance Wind. We had looked at a 100kw but because of the wind resource our area is, doubling the size does not double the output. The was a $150,000 to $200,000 difference for only 30,000 more kwh projected to be produced. At $.08 per kwh, that would take 60 years or more for the added payback. Actually it would only be about 40 years after the tax benefits.

It is important to take advantage of the grants and tax benefits that exist because without them the market would never develop. But I guess we need to make sure we prepare a few months ahead to get it done. Of course it was July 14th when we finally had the final vote from Walworth County to approve our zoning change and Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for the wind turbine and the entire Inn.

Environmental benefits of our wind turbine over 20 years- saving 4,400,000 lbs of CO2, 11,400 lbs of NOX, 24,400 lbs of SO2 and stop the burning of 1,000 tons of coal. Later we will go through the economics and how the money works on wind.

I knew I should have paid more attentionin Geology class in college. In preparation to get the pricing and costs for building the Inn, we have a geotechnical engineering firm come to the site and do soil borings which they have each 3 feet encased in a tube to take back to their lab and review multiple tests to determine the compressive strength, water table levels, etc for the structural engineers to precisely design the foundation for the wind turbine and buildings. Fairly critical since we don’t want the wind turbine bending in the wind. Gikes Engineering out of Waukesha did the soil borings and analysis. And thank you for doing it so quickly because we had our USDA wind turbine grant that had a deadline of July 31st- but that is a whole other story. The report will be on line soon.

Catherine had been talking about doing some accent walls with American Clay.  We were at the show to gain some exposure and gather names of people interested in going green. While talking to one couple about wind turbines and siting, Catherine was approached by another company displaying and it turns out she is certified American Caly applicator, does other stuuf and she suggested when we dig our foundation to gather gallons of the clay that she can refine and use to apply to some of our walls as an art treatment. Very cool idea and talk about reuse!

Our site had many issues to deal with and soil type was a major one. While heavy clay content can be great for conductivity for a geothermal system and good compressive strength for wind turbine foundations, it is terrible for onsite waste water treatment. City sewer is many years off so off to the engineering specialists for a solution. In fact, at the town planning commission one resident questioned how we coujld even do a septic and a farmer asked where are we going to get the water for all the hot tubs. Town meetings bring up questons you just can’t make up on your own.

A typical WI mound system is an anaerobic system that treats the effluent in a septic tank to partially break down the waste and then the water with some suspended solids go out to the mound for final treatment and returning the water to the aquifer. An aerobic system treats the effluent in an oxygen enriched chamber with much more aggressive bacteria that when the fluid is ready to go out to be filtered in the mound system, it is basically already clean water. With some additions we could have go to a toilet to tap system. Aerobic systems cost more to build and more to operate but they are much better for the environment. In fact, aerobic treatment can be used to save a failing anaerobic septic field.

With water becoming an important resource all over the world, managing storm water and waste water is a very important planning issue. We will be doing rainwater capture and reuse for landscape watering and for toilets. When you think about it, it doesn’t make sense to pump clean treated water only to flush it down the toilet. The rainwater still has some treatment but it saves water and energy (3% of all energy used in the US is for pumping water and waste watrer treatment. Dual flush toilets, living roof on the conference meeting center and rain gardens.

Wow- didn’t see that one coming and I have heard a lot of them. Conditional Use Permit public discussion gives everyone a chance to voice their opinions and feelings. The letter the town sent out had this project involves a wind turbine in extra large bold print so I guess we could have expected something. In reality, the person was upset because he bought a piece of property and thought the world would never change around him- then he gets a notice that the hwy 50 will be expanding in several years to 4 lanes and the road will wipe out all of his trees blocking the road and basically allow him to hand a cup of coffee to someone driving down the road. A car at 300 feet at 40 mph is 55 db and since their house will be 20 feet off the hwy, those bumble bees could be used to drown out the noise of the traffic. And then they realize our project is moving ahead.

We had been pretty upset about the hwy 50 expansion notice and then one member on the town board said that hwy 50 corridor was meant to go all commercial as part of the town’s long term land use plans. We got handed a lemon and decided to make a lemonade stand called The Green Leaf Inn.

It has been awhile since I last blogged. Hard to keep up when we have been doing our normal energy business that pays the bills while the zoning and permitting for the Green Leaf Inn has been going on. But we now getting to real decisions for designers, pricing, products and making deals.

 If you have ever been in a maze with high walls and being billed by the minute until you wind your way through to the exit- you will then know what it is like to get zoning and initial permits in place.

First we went to the Town PLanning commission first who approved zoning change request and they make a recommendation to the full Town commission. We were approved at both but then we had to go back for the conditional use permit (CUP) to be allowed to have a hotel and for the wind turbine, solar, geothermal heat pump, gift shop, banquet area for a tent, building heights, set backs, etc. The Planning commission unanimously approved the CUP and now June 13th we are at the Town full commission. If that goes well it is off to the Walworth County equivalent of the planning commission or land use and then a full hearing of the couinty’s full commission. Sometimes I think the attorneys and governments planned out the whole thing. The process seems to take longer then I had expected and costs a lot more to just get there.

The Green Leaf Inn is co-sponsoring a 1kw solar electric give away including panels, inverter, roof mount rack with Community Green Energy and Cost Containment International. The links to the sites to sign up are below. You can actually sign up once per day. In fact if you click around, you can sign up right here on the www.greeningtheinn.com site - good luck.

http://www.communitygreenenergy.com/

http://www.c2intl.com/c2-cge.php

We are starting to prepare for a number of shows to get The Green Leaf Inn project out in front of like minded people. More info at www.greenfestivals.org Last year 35,000 people attended the show. With our plans to condo-tel our building and all of the renewable energy systems- perhaps we can find potential investors interested in owning a piece of a net zero hotel for the revenue, tax benefits and pride of owning something unique.

Catherine and I will be speaking on renewable energy and energy efficiency and its applications in the design of The Green Leaf Inn. They have over 1,250 people registered to attend this three day event. We are speaking on Wed the 25th in the afternoon.

It will be a great opportunity to network with a lot of people active in the Renewable and sustainable fields.

http://www.renewableenergysummit.org/

We had the pleasure of being interviewed by Kayla at the Gazette. The article featured our plans for the Green Leaf Inn.

http://www.gazettextra.com/news/2009/feb/28/couple-planting-seeds-green-inn/