Businesses becoming efficient with Renewegy wind turbines from Oshkosh

From an article by Jeff Bollier in The Northwesern, Oshkosh:

Renewegy wasn't even a word when Michael Dillon and his fellow managers at SCA Tissue North America's Neenah offices set out to reduce their plants emissions by 20 percent between 2005 and 2020.

About 75 percent of their goal would be accomplished by making heating and air conditioning units more efficient, re-wiring the McMahon Drive building, installing motion sensors and other efficiency efforts. However, the other 25 percent would have to come from renewable energy sources, Dillon said.

SCA's energy use has dropped from 88 megawatt-hours-per-month to 62 megawatt-hours-per-month.

"We figured we would reduce consumption as much as we could and then maximize our use of alternative energy sources where applicable," Dillon said.

Enter Oshkosh's Renewegy at just the right time. Four 80 kilowattt wind turbines that are expected to be operational by the end of the month will generate an estimated 100-125 megawatt-hours-per-year and complement a rooftop solar panel that generates about 55 megawatt-hours-per-year.

"We don't want to just talk the talk, we want to walk the walk," Dillon said. "We're excited to be giving back to our community and our planet. We're excited and we look forward to sharing our results with local people, local communities and local companies."

Renewegy's Jeff Ehlers feels about the same way. The company has grown from its three or four founding employees to 16 and is about to begin manufacturing its first 30-unit run this fall. Of the 10 pre-production units made already, two will stay at Renewegy's Oshkosh headquarters, four are going into service at SCA, two more go to another Wisconsin company and the remaining two will be shipped to a Nebraska company.