When power finally came to the off-the-grid subdivisions on a mesa above Telluride in 2004, some of the back-to-the-earth residents were turned off. Now, one of them wants to use Hastings Mesa’s blustery winds to spin power into that system.
State energy officials erected a wind monitor Thursday on the 9,000-foot-tall mesa to determine whether the winds on a shoulder of the San Juan Mountains are sufficient for wind turbines.
“This has always been in the back of my mind, but the power line forced my hand,” said John Janus, a Hastings Mesa resident who opposed the fossil-fuel-dependent power line and offered his land and financial backing for turbines to feed wind power into the grid.
Janus has been monitoring the wind from a small weather station outside his solar-powered home and found that it averaged 12 mph over the past year. He said there was no month when gusts didn’t reach at least 35 mph. That’s enough to provide the 100 kilowatts of power on-the-grid Hastings Mesa residents are using to fire up their pottery wheels, refrigerators, washing machines and computers.
Now, the Colorado Governor’s Office of Energy Management and Conservation will officially gather that data with the wind-measuring device – called an anemometer – perched atop a 90-foot-high pole outside Janus’ home.
Data will be collected for a year and analyzed to confirm wind speeds and determine what times of day the wind blows most. If the times fall during the early-morning and evening peak power-use periods for San Miguel Power Association, wind generation will become more attractive because fossil- fueled power is more expensive at those times.
The power association is offering volunteer assistance for the wind study. San Miguel spokesman Tom Kovalak said this marks the first time the association has ventured into a wind-power project.
The association installed the power line that raised such a ruckus in 2004, when some residents feared it would bring light pollution, ostentatious houses and a wasteful mentality to a mesa that once was the enclave of back-to-the-land types. The mesa now has nearly 200 dwellings ranging from a yurt to multimillion-dollar mansions and residents of widely divergent economic classes and social outlooks.
Janus said he expects some of those folks will object to what he expects to be one to four wind turbines because they will consider them an eyesore.
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” Janus said. “Myself and many others consider wind turbines to be incredibly beautiful things. Some do not agree with that.”
John Holstrum, a neighboring organic farmer, said he would view a wind turbine as he does his solar panels.
“I don’t think a turbine would bother me,” he said. “It would be like looking at my solar panels. It would give me a sense of satisfaction.”
Drew Bolin, director of the governor’s energy office, said the anemometer on Hastings Mesa is the highest in Colorado. Other state wind-testing devices are in Eads, Burlington, Walsenburg, Falcon, Moffat, Sterling and South Fork.
Staff writer Nancy Lofholm can be reached at 970-256-1957 or nlofholm@denverpost.com.
