The Wind And The Road

Community cleanup
Somerset
Forty-six employees of South Kentucky Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation participated in the annual PRIDE (Personal Responsibility in a Desirable Environment) cleanup of Highway 27, Norwood Road, Cooperative Way, and Old Salts Road. Employees picked up trash on a five-mile stretch of road.

“This is an excellent opportunity for the co-op to demonstrate that we truly do care about our members and the community,” says Allen Anderson, president and CEO of South Kentucky Rural Electric. “It’s a good feeling doing something positive in the community, and hopefully community members will take more pride in keeping our community clean. In the past two to three years we have been doing this, I have noticed that each year there is less trash.”

Checking into wind power
Danville
“What is that and what does it do?”

Jim Jacobus, president and CEO of Inter-County Energy Cooperative, and his staff never tire of hearing that question about the unusual device in front of their headquarters.

“We have a lot of customers who ask about alternative energy sources and whether they should consider them,” Jacobus recalls. “We decided to install a wind generator to show people what one looks like, its capabilities, and how much energy it produces.”

In less than two months after it was installed, the wind generator had produced 10.346 kilowatt-hours of electricity. It cost less than $14,000 to install the device.

“It’s not the conventional windmill with blades,” Jacobus notes. “It is much more compact, like one we would expect customers to have at home.”

Jacobus plans for the cooperative to offer classes and tours, as well as provide real-time information about wind speeds and the amount of energy produced by the device. All of this information will ultimately be available on the cooperative’s Web site.