The long, flat highway of U.S Route 50, some 120 miles south of Denver, is a wind tunnel of opportunity for small-town Penrose. It’s no surprise to see Southwest Windpower’s Whisper 200 turbine bordering the panoramic horizon of the Rocky Mountains. The Whisper 200 is a component of a larger wind-solar hybrid system designed and built by Southwest Windpower dealers Jeremy Rodriguez and his wife, Amy.
RUNNING A SUCCESSFUL OFF-GRID BUSINESS
Rodriguez decided to run his business, All Solar Inc. off-grid, producing his own electricity without a utility company. His business offers design, sales, installation, service and repair to various wind power systems for both solar heating and water pumping applications.
Many would see an off-grid system to be intimidating and difficult to manage; however, Rodriguez has proven that it is no different than an on-grid system and said the independence is part of solution rather than the problem.
He combines his Whisper 200 with solar panels that produce some 640 watts of photovoltaic (PV) energy. Rodriguez says to go off-grid, a stand-alone product is not sufficed. If there is no wind, the solar panels pick up the slack and vice versa. It becomes a symbiotic give-and-take relationship.
The turbine’s blades pick up the wind, sending the energy directly into the Whisper’s Charge Controller, or battery regulator, which limits how quickly the current is drawn from the batteries. The device is designed to prevent the batteries from overcharging, which can weaken or reduce the battery’s lifespan and performance as well as a safety precaution in emergency situations when the power needs to be cut. The current is then pushed into an inverter, reversing the electric charge to the most commonly used form of electric power for any at-home device, alternating current (AC).
The current is sent into a “load” as stored energy that can be used for every day appliances like microwaves and TVs as needed.
“The system is designed what it is advertised to do,” said Rodriguez, who has been satisfied with the Whisper 200 since he purchased the product nine years ago. He has never had any major issues with the turbine, he said, and has only taken it down twice in its lifetime for routine maintenance.
GROWING UP OFF-GRID
The couple’s two children had a valuable experience of growing up off-grid. The family lived on 10-acres of land, which allowed them to run their household entirely away from the utility company for six years, until they moved into a new home that is on-grid.
Exposing their children to renewable energies in the home--both wind and solar—conservation became a way of life.
“It’s was a great experience for the kids to grow up off-grid, because if the power went out, we didn’t know it,” he said. “We still had lights.” He noted that they were more aware of turning off the lights as they left a room, a habitual lesson that is now ingrained.
He noted the family’s lifestyle did change. You may not be able to do three loads of laundry at night or keep all the lights on in the house; however, the changes were for the better and in the name of conservation, which is all part of the complete renewable energy package.
With his personal application of renewable energy at his home combined with his business sophistication, Rodriguez uses an exemplary sales pitch as an advantage when discussing system options to his customers. His testimonies and anecdotes allow customers to see the versatility of clean energy systems. The framework can be altered for different objectives, but the core never changes; it’s a step closer to a cleaner and more efficient environment.
“The best part is that we’re not buying any power from the grid,” Rodriguez said. “It’s free power.”
LOOKING INTO THE FUTURE
Looking into the future, he sees a general shift in renewables-- with the expanding market and available products, such as Southwest’s Skystream 3.7, a grid-tied turbine.
“That’s been a huge improvement in wind power,” he said. “Just having a unit that can actually be grid-tie and basically plug it in. I see more and more people looking for ways to get off the grid or at least supplement the grid.”
