100-foot wind turbine erected outside Palouse

After a season-long wrestling match with winter weather, a family outside Palouse has finally erected a wind turbine.

Only able to work on still, cool, dry days, crews have spent the past few months putting up a 100-foot turbine atop a hill south of Palouse.

“We fought the weather for a long time and finally found a nice little window to get in there and get it done,” said Craig Dillard.

The turbine is dedicated to the late Mike Carlton, an advocate for wind energy on the Palouse. The turbine sits on the land of Tony Kettel and will supply her home with energy. Kettel’s daughter, Linda Dillard, has been working with husband Craig for the past eight months to have the tower erected.

During a cold, still morning last Friday, Feb. 18, crews put the finishing touches on the structure. The Dillards, along with Dave and Sharon Tharp, showed up to watch the big finish (which they missed because the crew put up the structure earlier that morning).

Kettel has had an interest in green energy for some time. When Craig met Mike Carlton a few years ago, Carlton began telling him about alternative energy. Carlton worked with MC Energy, a wind energy company in Spokane.

Kettel in June began working with MC Energy on the turbine.

“She is really behind green energy. She really liked the idea of generating your own electricity,” Dillard said.

Carlton, who worked with green energy on the Palouse for five years, died in October.

The turbine will supply Kettel’s home with electricity through a special program with Avista. Any extra electricity produced by the turbine will be bought by Avista.

“Not everyone has a good location for solar or wind. But we did. So it was the perfect thing to do. It just made really good sense to take advantage of great government incentives and put the system up,” Dillard said.

The U.S. government, Dillard said, ended up compensating the family almost 30 percent of its building costs through a tax credit because the structure was for green energy.

“Whatever you pay for the system, you get a tax credit for that,” Dillard said.

A second Carlton memorial being organized will involve solar panels for the roof of the Palouse Community Center. The Tharps are working now to raise funds for the panels.