Appleseed sees 'windmill paradise'

Since their arrival in Janvrin's Island in 2001, Brian and Gina Rose have employed solar panels and a wind turbine to supply their energy needs and are now hoping to encourage others to follow their lead.

JANVRIN’S ISLAND - Two families here are hoping their success at harnessing the wind to power their homes will inspire other Strait area families, businesses and municipal units to consider alternative energy possibilities.
The seeds for Appleseed Energy were planted in 2000, when Brian Rose and his wife Gina bought their current Janvrin’s Island property and subsequently moved to the Isle Madame community from their home in Indiana. Upon discovering that Nova Scotia Power Incorporated (NSPI) would charge the couple $40,000 to hook up electricity to their new home, the Roses went in a different direction.
“At that point, we decided to get a couple of solar panels so we could have some entertainment instead of sitting around and looking at each other,” Rose recalls with a smile. “So we did that and set up a TV and a couple of other things, and then when we decided we’d like to have a freezer, we added some more solar panels and decided to get a windmill at that point, and it kind of went from there.”
Inspired by the success of their turbine installation but concerned at the difficulty of purchasing such products in Nova Scotia, Rose joined forces with one of his neighbours, Ross MacDonald, to prove that local residents could quickly, easily and efficiently use wind power to replace their current dependence on electricity.
In early July, the MacDonald family completed the installation of a Skystream 3.7 marine grade 2.4 kilowatt (kW) wind turbine, which is hooked up to the NSPI grid through the corporation’s net-metering program. This system sees the owner use the power produced by the turbine while sending the rest back through the grid for credit, with a bi-directional meter accurately recording the power usage in both directions.
“If you’re not using as much power as you’re making, it just goes back into the grid,” MacDonald explains.
Through their Appleseed Energy venture, Rose and MacDonald are now marketing turbines and solar panels to customers around Cape Breton Island and the counties of Guysborough and Antigonish. While residents in the Sydney area and Victoria County seem to be showing the most interest at this point, Rose notes that the venture is meeting with enthusiasm around its Isle Madame home base.
“When we originally started talking about setting up the business, we found that every single person we’ve talked to is interested in this stuff,” Rose declares. “If they could somehow afford to do it, everybody would do it - they all love the idea of a windmill or going off-grid.”
However, the Appleseed Energy partners are predicting that potential customers will need government incentives to switch to wind and solar energy, and Rose suggests that Nova Scotia is lagging behind other jurisdictions in this regard.
“The iron is hot all over the world, but Cape Breton - and Nova Scotia in general - is a little bit lagging as far as their policies towards renewables,” he declares.
“In Ontario and Saskatchewan, there are very good incentives for people to put windmills and solar panels in. But in Nova Scotia, there are really no incentives - the only incentive we have, really, is for registered farmers to get half of their turbines paid for, up to $24,000.”
By targeting agricultural stakeholders such as farmers, as well as coastal cabin owners, Rose and MacDonald are hoping to change the way Strait area residents think of renewable energy.
“My dream is to see a windmill everywhere - there’s just no reason not to have that,” says Rose. “I can envision a time in the future where Isle Madame is a windmill paradise, and people come from all over the world to see it.”
For more information on Appleseed Energy, visit the company’s Web site: www.appleseedenergy.com.