FULL-TILT

WASILLA — Legal briefs and quilts prepared using partially green power.

At least since August, if Jeff Carney wanted to, he could use that slogan in advertising his legal practice and his wife’s quilt-making business, both attached to the couple’s home.

August is when Carney raised an electricity-generating windmill in the yard beside his house on Lake View Drive.

So far, Carney is pleased with the results. Watching his electricity meter’s dials spin Saturday, Carney said the whole thing fascinates him.

“I’ll come out here sometimes in the dark with a flashlight, freezing my butt off,” he said.

A number of windmills have been put up in the Valley. Carney knows of at least three others and a few more under construction.

But in a couple of ways, Carney’s is different.

He’s confident his is the first in Wasilla city limits. And, probably more significantly, a Matanuska Electric Association spokeswoman confirmed Friday he’s the first to sell power generated by his windmill back to the utility.

“Once a year, if we produce more power than we need, they send us a check,” Carney said.

With both MEA and the city of Wasilla, Carney said it was a bit of a learning process as he educated himself on how to install his windmill and the city and utility worked out permitting and contracts.

“Nobody’s really set up for this,” he said.

Now his traditional meter runs backwards when the wind is blowing hard enough to supply more than his own needs, Carney said.

That’s just a temporary measure until MEA installs a different meter that will keep track of inbound power and outbound power separately.

Then, Carney said, he’ll be selling power to MEA — at wholesale rates.

“It’ll be more than fair to MEA,” he said.

The difference between the two setups is the difference between what’s called “net metering” — when the meter runs backward — and “interconnected generation.”

The latter is MEA’s preferred method, as is clear in a letter MEA spokeswoman Lorali Carter wrote in January to a state representative sponsoring a bill regarding net metering.

“Effectively, [net metering] allows the … generator to benefit from the utility’s investment in transmission, distribution and back-up generation infrastructure without paying a fair share of the cost for such infrastructure,” Carter wrote.

Carney said he understands that position and he’s fine with that. It’s nice to know that what power he doesn’t use is being used by a neighbor down the line.

Another energy option, one a few people in the Valley have used, is to install battery banks to harness excess power for calm days. The upkeep on such a system, Carney said, is something he’s not quite ready for.

“You’ve got this toxic waste sitting in your house,” Carney said.

However, it’s something he’ll likely consider later, maybe after he’s installed some planned solar panels on the back of his house.

And he’s not done on the windmill front. What’s operating now is the first one he built atop a somewhat expensive pole. He said since it’s in the front yard he wanted it to look nice, despite the fact that he could have easily built a tower out of pipe he has on hand.

“The next one I’ll put out back and I’ll use my ugly pipe,” he said.

And when he retires and is spending most of his time in Hawaii, Carne said he will probably pack up the windmills and take them with him.

“That’s why we bought the marine model,” he said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.