Swan Point Couple Install Windmill to Generate Electricity

As his 33-foot windmill slowly rose into place, Ken Robinson watched wide-eyed and breathed a sigh of relief.

"It was a bureaucratic nightmare, and there were times of doubt, but now it's real," Robinson said Wednesday, as the windmill gained momentum in the mild afternoon breeze.

Robinson and his wife, Sheryl Elliott, spent about $23,000 to build Southern Maryland's first residential windmill on their Swan Point property, flanked by the Potomac River on one side and Cuckold Creek on the other.

The couple's 18-month process to win necessary permits culminated last week as they celebrated the windmill with about 200 friends, neighbors and members of the Green Club at Dr. Thomas L. Higdon Elementary School.

The students from the club, which promotes environmental awareness, held pinwheels that functioned as mini-windmills. A draft horse, borrowed from a farm and tethered to a pulley, pulled the windmill up. It took about five minutes before the tower snapped into place, to wild applause.

"It's very exciting and important to have the first windmill here," said 11-year-old Karley Dunn, a 5th-grade member of the Green Club. "Our whole world needs to be better, and this is a good example."

Perhaps the most dramatic element of the windmill is its location, just across the creek from the twin smokestacks of one of the region's largest coal-fired power plants, in Morgantown. Shortly after the windmill's turbine began to spin, thick smoke could be seen pouring from the plant's 700-foot towers.

"Everybody, look at the pollution coming from over there," Elliott told the children. "That's why wind power is greener electricity."

The plant, operated by global energy giant Mirant, inspired Robinson and Elliott to build their windmill. Robinson had long battled Mirant over its pollution record at the plant, and she launched a Web site, http://stopmirant.com. (The site redirects viewers to a page announcing Robinson's intent to run against Charles County Commissioner Samuel N. Graves Jr. (D-La Plata) in the Democratic primary next year).

While researching Mirant, Robinson and Elliott began learning about alternative forms of energy, including wind power. They thought that their windy back yard would be a good site for a windmill, an idea confirmed by Potomac Wind Energy chief executive Carlos Fernandez-Bueno.

"As soon as I came, I told them I had never seen a place that would be better than this," Fernandez-Bueno said Wednesday.

The windmill won't allow Robinson and Elliott to be totally independent of Mirant, but it will provide about 40 percent of their electricity for half the cost. They are considering adding solar panels to increase electricity generation, Elliott said.

Although the average residential windmill generally costs less than $15,000, Elliott and Robinson's expenses were compounded by the fact that the windmill sits several hundred feet from their home. A 220-volt line had to be run underground from the turbine to the house.

Robinson said he expects the price of windmills to drop as they become more popular. At least two of his neighbors are considering adding them, he said.

Lexy Dodson, a fifth-grade Green Club member from Higdon, said she wants to make sure there are more windmills in the world by the time she grows up.

"When I'm president, I'll make everyone have one," she said.