John and Dorothy Priske are big believers in local foods and businesses.  Their Highland beef is sold at the Dane County farmers market and served at many quality restaurants in the area.  Now Fountain Prairie will get their power as locally as it gets, from the very wind blowing over their 280-acre farm.

 

By the end of this, week they will be host to Wisconsin’s newest small wind turbine.  The Endurance Wind Power 50kW machine is only the third to be installed in the state.  It will be operating on a free-standing lattice tower, and expected to produce more electricity than the operations of the Inn and Farm require.

 

Seventh Generation Energy Systems (SGES) will build the tower and set the turbine in less than a week.  The process began last year when the Priskes approached SGES to assist with funding and project development.  They received incentives through the Focus on Energy program as well as through the USDA renewable energy program for rural businesses.

 

“Wind energy is still the most economical option for distributed generation of electricity”, says Ry Thompson, Seventh Generation’s Systems Manager.  He adds, “For farmers in Wisconsin, or any rural business, there are promising developments on the horizon for systems optimized to our wind regime and typical load requirements.”

 

Beginning next week, visitors to the Fountain Prairie Inn will get a taste of what it’s like to be wind-powered.  Fountain Prairie will host a farm tour later in the spring to give their customers and the public a taste of renewable energy on a small, and very local, scale.