From a news story by Mary Rinzel on WEAU-TV — http://www.weau.com/home/headlines/97103734.html
As they lined up their lawn chairs in Chippewa County, their eyes were to the sky. It was a big day at Sylvan and Leona’s Rothbauer’s Tilden farm. It was a day more than three years in the making.
“I think it’s a good idea, I really do. I think we’re going the right way,” Leona says.
For years, Sylvan and Leona dreamed of putting up a wind turbine. Now, that dream is up and running.
“Every state we went through had wind turbines,” Sylvan says of a Midwest vacation some years back.
It was that vacation that planted an idea in the farmer’s mind. He started saving for a turbine of his own.
“I just decided I was going to get one up, put one up and see what it does anyway,” Sylvan says.
Wednesday, that turbine [Ventura VT10-240] started spinning thanks in part to a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Energy for America Program.
“Nationwide, we’re going to fund more than $100 million worth of grants in this program this year. In Wisconsin, that’s going to be about 75 to 100 projects that we will fund this year,” says Jeff Hudson with the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.
Hudson says the Rothbauers will get a $15,750 grant to cover 25 percent of the turbine’s $63,000 cost. The company [SolarWinds, Bloomer, WI] that put up the turbine says federal and state tax credits also help.