One congregation, maybe two, going ‘green’ with geothermal
By John G. White
Editor
At least one Clara City church, and possibly a second, is looking underground for comfort and relief from an expected rise in fossil fuel costs.
This spring, Bethany Reformed Church will have 26 “wells” drilled in the grassy area adjacent to the sanctuary to install a closed-loop geothermal heating system.
That congregation isn’t alone in facing heating and cooling concerns. Immanuel Lutheran Church has had one congregational meeting to explore the option, although the chair of the church board, Chuck DeGrote, said, “We’re in the research stage. We’ll come back to the congregation probably later this summer before a decision is made.”
Even the MACCRAY school is looking into alternative energy options, and has dismissed the possibility of using a biomass burner. Superintendent Greg Schmidt said his facilities committee is planning on inviting Tom Freetly, of Freetly Electric, Inc., of Kerkhoven, to a March committee meeting to learn more about geothermal.”
“I’ve been interested in geothermal for a long time,” said Schmidt. “I attended the green energy conference recently in Milan in a church using the technology. The numbers were impressive.”
That conference, hosted by CURE, the Prairie Sun Bank and the Greater Milan Community, was attended by green energy advocates from throughout the region, and was held in the Kviteseid Lutheran Church which installed a geothermal heating and cooling system about ten years ago.
Its pastor, Tom Opoien, said that while he wasn’t at the church at the time, he has heard stories from congregation members on how nervous they were at the time. “This was a huge project, a huge investment. Back then we were spending between $15,000 to $20,000 on heating with fuel oil. And, we didn’t have air conditioning.”
Opoien said, “Remember, that was the money we were spending before the price jumped last summer. With that price we estimated we would have spent $50,000 on fuel last year. Instead, we spent a total of $6,500, and that includes all the electrical costs including the air conditioning. So the economics are just fantastic, and the congregation is extremely pleased.”
The entire project cost approximately $150,000 and included the wells, the piping and the four heat pumps. “Our payback, based on 99-cent fuel oil, was nine years. Of course, with the prices last summer the payback would have been much sooner,” he said.
In fact, the payback would have been in the four to five year range. |
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Stimulus plan my help home installations
As one of the area’s leading contractors for installing geothermal, ground source heating systems, Tom Freetly, president and owner of Freetly Electricity of Kerkhoven, said that volatile fossil fuel prices and the concept of “greening” has changed the way he does business.
“We used to get an inquiry about geothermal heating once or twice a year, if that,” he said. That is no longer the case, and he said his company installed eight residential systems in 2008 alone.
“I expect that number to jump significantly in the near future, especially with Obama’s new Stimulus Bill. That was a huge step toward better energy self-sufficiency,” he said.
Up until the signing of the bill last week there was a $2,000 limit on the 30 percent tax credit for homeowners who installed geothermal heat pump systems. Starting this year, systems installed in 2009 the limit for the tax credit jumps to a maximum of $4,500.
“So, as a homeowner, if you’re putting in a $15,000 system, you could write off almost a third of the cost with instant tax credits,” said Freetly. “That’s a major jump.”
Basically this is a “perfect” marriage between technology and the natural environment. Freetly said the most efficient fuel-burning heater, or furnace, can reach efficiencies around 95 percent.
However, a geothermal heat pump can move up to four units of heat for every unit of electricity needed to power the system, resulting in a practical equivalence of over 400 percent efficiency.
Geothermal ground source heat pumps are electrically powered systems that tap the stored energy of the greatest solar collector in existence: the earth. These systems use the earth’s relatively constant temperature to provide heating, cooling, and hot water for homes and commercial buildings.
Conventional furnaces and boilers burn a fuel to generate heat, while geothermal heat pumps use electricity to simply move heat from the earth into buildings, allowing for the much higher efficiencies.
Ground source heat pumps can be either closed or open looped and can be installed in three ways: horizontally, vertically, or in a pond/lake. The type chosen depends on the available land areas and the soil and rock type at the installation site. These factors will help determine the most economical choice for installation of the ground loop.
For closed loop systems, water or antifreeze solution is circulated through plastic pipes buried beneath the earth’s surface. During the winter, the fluid collects heat from the earth and carries it through the system and into the building.
During the summer, the system reverses itself to cool the building by pulling heat from the building, carrying it through the system and placing it in the ground. This process creates free hot water in the summer and delivers substantial hot water savings in the winter. |
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Schmidt’s ‘state of the district’ again sounds sobering
By John G. White
Editor
Despite moving to a four-day school week, selling off the Junior High and nearly a million dollars in budgetary adjustments including staffing cuts, the MACCRAY District is far from being out of the financial prairie grasses.
On top of continuing declining student numbers, it doesn’t appear going into the next budget cycle that the district will receive much help from its primary funding source — the state of Minnesota.
This was part of the message district superintendent Greg Schmidt presented during a “state of the district” at a “working session” of the MACCRAY board and administrative team last Wednesday.
Schmidt delved into the past, reported the present and even took a stab at the future — one that saw some positive funding numbers from President Obama’s Stimulus Bill.
Even that has potential drawbacks, however, and Schmidt warned that if the board was worried about this next budget, just wait until the spring of 2010 when the school’s largest class of 81 students graduates.
“By comparison,” he said, “the next largest class is 65 students with the average being slightly less than 55 students.”
And, the Class of 2023 (the kindergarten class starting school in 2010) is estimated at 37 students.
Based on the current Minnesota state-based funding formula calculations, the difference in state aid after the Class of 2010 graduates is $243,892 less than now.
Current enrollment is 704 students, which drops to 663 students in 2010-2011, and down to 626 by 2013-14 (based on statistics of children currently being born).
While this was a working session, and Schmidt laid out some possibilities, he asked that some of those strategies not be published until there is opportunity to communicate with the staff. Another working session is planned for Wednesday, March 4. Schmidt also suggested that the “assumptions and possible action items” are his and that the board has neither come to consensus or acted on them as an action item.
He did warn, however, that it’s a “realistic possibility” that the state will lower the base formula amount by three to five percent for each of the next two years as it works on budget problems of its own. |
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First hurdle cleared in are Vet Home effort
By John Givan
American News
The first major hurdle has been cleared in the effort to convince the state of Minnesota to locate a veterans home in Montevideo.
The Montevideo Veterans Home Committee last week announced it had surpassed the $1 million mark in pledges for the proposed 90-bed home. The total now stands at $1.015 million.
“We’re very excited to reach that first million dollars,” said Montevideo Community Development Director Nick Haggenmiller. “The (effort) went almost exactly as planned.”
A bill supporting the proposed home was introduced in the state House of Representatives Feb. 5 by Rep. Lyle Koenen. The bill has been referred to the House Finance Committee, according to Haggenmiller.
State Sen. Gary Kubly advised local proponents at a meeting in January 2008 that if the community could raise the state’s 10 percent portion of the matching funds needed to obtain federal funding, it would “give you a leg up” and greatly increase the likelihood of getting the home.
Fundraising began in earnest in late November 2008 with the goal of raising $1 million by the time the state Legislature went into session.
The first round of fundraising relied primarily upon local city and county government and economic development agencies. Pledging organizations include:
• Chippewa County: $300,000
• City of Montevideo: $200,000
• MCDC: $250,000
• MIDC; $50,000
• Montevideo EDA: $25,000
• Lac qui Parle County: $50,000
• Yellow Medicine County: $50,000
• KleinBank: $30,000
• Minnwest Bank: $30,000
• American Legion Post 59: $30,000
The second round of fundraising, which has a goal of raising $1 million by June 1, will seek donations from local and regional individuals, businesses and organizations. |
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