The Dickens family of Pigeon, in the Thumb, is one of the state's greenest. Dad Brion, mom Kathy, daughters Aubrey, 7, and Chelsea, 11, and dog Toto show off the electric plug-in car they use for errands.
Brion Dickens makes biodiesel fuel for use in his off-road construction equipment using waste oil that is collected from local restaurants. His company, Woodland Wind, installs wind turbines.
TODAY IS EARTH DAY
Michigan family takes green living to the extreme
They even make own electricity
BY TINA LAM • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • April 22, 2008
PIGEON -- Brion and Kathy Dickens might just be Michigan's greenest couple.
Consider:
• They heat their 4,000-square-foot home with a biomass boiler that is fed with pellets made from wood, corn or sugar beets.
• They have their own windmill to provide electricity.
• Their electric car recharges by plugging into the windmill's turbine.
• Brion makes his own diesel fuel from waste grease to help fuel his Dodge pickup and Oldsmobile and to completely fuel his construction equipment.
• They helped start an annual Earth Day celebration four years ago that now draws about 6,000 people a year.
• They've helped turn their local school district, where Kathy is principal of Laker Junior High, super-green, with three wind turbines that provide about 60% of the elementary school's electricity, a new project to put in biodiesel buses and green energy for the district-owned superintendent's house.
"To me, they're inspiring," said Scott Whipple, math and science codirector for the Huron Intermediate School District, sponsor of the Earth Day celebration. "They're showing others what can be done."
Asked if people think they're weird, Kathy laughed.
"Some couples golf together, some bowl together," she said. "We talk about renewable energy. I guess we're a little obsessed."
Brion and Kathy met 17 years ago as teachers in Lenawee County.
"We hit it off," said Brion, 41.
They were never hippie types. Kathy, 40, said they were raised in conservative homes; their moms washed out plastic sandwich bags and reused paper plates.
"We've always had the like mind-set of trying to do things as frugally as possible," Brion said. "We don't enjoy spending money."
Added Kathy: "We're cheap."
As a general contractor for more than two decades, Brion has tried to design energy-efficient buildings.
"I see where things are going," he said. "The days of cheap gas and electricity are over."
When they added to their Victorian farmhouse surrounded by farm fields outside Pigeon in 2002, they were using propane for heat. Their home is close to Saginaw Bay in Michigan's Thumb. Because they were doubling the home's size and adding Kathy's dream indoor pool, they feared propane costs would be astronomical. Brion looked into alternatives.
He chose a corn-fired boiler because corn was cheap then, at $2 per bushel, and a more efficient fuel than propane.
"We paid back our installation costs in a year" with the savings, he said.
Unfortunately, he didn't foresee the ethanol boom and skyrocketing price of corn, which has lately flirted with $6 a bushel. Now, he's using wood or sugar beet pellets from the local co-op. Local farmers grow sugar beets, and the pellets are made from leftover pulp.
"It's still cheaper than propane," he said.
The boiler heats the indoor pool in the winter; in summer, it's heated by solar panels. They're not off the grid, though; when the family wind turbine is down, as it is now because of a broken blade, they get electricity from DTE Energy. At times, though, they sell electricity back to the utility.
Brion buys biodiesel from the local co-op as a way to support farmers or uses a processor to make biodiesel from french fry grease he rounds up from local restaurants. He estimates he's made 300 to 400 gallons over the past few years and has taught school kids how to do it. This week, he'll be helping students to make biodiesel out of sunflower seeds from a crop the school grew beneath its wind turbines.
Brion is passionate about wind power. His company, Woodland Wind, installs turbines (admittedly few so far in Michigan), and he's a wind educator for the state's Energy Office, driving thousands of miles across the state on his own time to talk to anyone who is interested.
Kathy scours Web sites looking for state, federal and foundation grants. Her grant-writing abilities have brought Laker schools a composter; wind turbines; a science lab where kids learn how to make their own wind turbines; grants for a turbine; solar panels that track the sun's movement; a new biomass boiler for the superintendent's home; processors to make biodiesel and seed oil, and a program to use 20% biodiesel on buses and retrofit old buses with equipment to clean up their diesel emissions.
She just submitted grants for plug-in hybrid buses and biomass boilers for the schools.
"I look for ways to save taxpayers money and for kids to learn something," she said.
She said her community is forward-looking and accepting change. Pigeon is home to the state's commercial wind farm, which farmers have welcomed.
"I've never heard anything negative about any of these things," Kathy said.
The Dickenses' two daughters -- Chelsea, 11, and Aubrey, 7 -- are used to their parents' projects by now. In 2005, just after Kathy learned she'd gotten a grant to put up the school's wind turbines, the family took a road trip to New England. The parents promised their daughters a puppy in exchange for countless stops along the way to see turbines. The girls bit.
On long summer evenings, the couple sits on their wide farmhouse porch thinking of new ways to lower their carbon footprint.
"We're never done," Brion said.
Contact TINA LAM at 313-222-6421 or tlam@freepress.com.
Grow renewable energy on farms
BY RUSSELL LUNDBERG • April 22, 2008
As Michigan debates its energy future, one clear way forward is to build a strong renewable energy industry, which can help our state provide affordable electricity while creating jobs, strengthening our economy, and protecting our land and water.
Twenty six states and the District of Columbia are already demonstrating that the best way to build this new industry is through the adoption of a standard requiring that a percentage of energy come from renewable sources, such as wind, solar or farm-based bio-gas.
A strong renewable energy industry will also benefit farmers, rural landowners and their communities, as we have begun to see in the Thumb.
In Michigan and across the nation, farms and rural communities represent the front lines of the renewable energy industry. Many of these projects, from wind turbines to methane digester, are taking place on Michigan farms, and they're benefiting farm communities.
Take wind energy. Developers are leasing land from farmers and rural landowners so they can install wind turbines. This helps generate income for farmers as well as much needed electricity. So far, renewable energy developers have built 32 turbines in the Thumb. Another 46 are being planned to be built soon, also in the Thumb. Each wind park of about 30 turbines or so can provide enough electricity to power 15,000 homes, thus diversifying our electricity supply.
The extra income helps farmers keep their land and pass it on to the next generation. Furthermore, when farmers have a little bit more money in their pockets, they spend it locally and give back to their communities. Renewable energy also helps us protect Michigan's land, lakes and water, as we burn less fossil fuel.
Despite all these benefits, Michigan's full potential in renewable energy remains unrealized. While the wind energy sector has planted some promising seeds, we can attract even more renewable energy projects. What Michigan needs is a renewable energy standard that will set clear targets and goals, keep costs affordable, and hold energy providers accountable.
For farmers and rural communities, renewable energy represents the winter harvest that protects our family farms in today's economy. Let's build a strong renewable energy sector in Michigan, end our dangerous dependence on fossil fuels, and help local communities at the same time.
RUSSELL LUNDBERG is the building and zoning director for Huron County. Write to him in care of the Free Press Editorial Page, 615 W. Lafayette, Detroit, MI 48226 or at oped@freepress.com.
Take full advantage of wind's potential
BY SARA MARGARET GILBERT • April 22, 2008
The winds of change are blowing strong in Michigan. They are moving over the lakes and across the plains, gusting through depopulated urban centers and ritzy suburbs alike. The problem is that state lawmakers are slow to harness these winds: A clean, endless supply of economic rejuvenation blows right by them.
Michigan possesses tremendous wind energy resources. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory says that we have wind resources that are consistent with utility-scale energy production. We could generate enough zero-pollution electricity to replace or supplement multiple large power plants. What's more, the turbines that capture wind energy can be manufactured in Michigan, creating thousands of jobs and diversifying the state's economy.
But last month, state Senate Republicans said no to large-scale wind energy development. They passed an energy bill that did not include a statewide renewable portfolio standard. An RPS would require that up to 25% of the electricity generated in Michigan come from renewable resources by 2025. It would make Michigan an ideal location for wind developers and turbine manufacturers, because they would have a guaranteed market for their products.
By not passing an RPS, legislators waved off the chance to tell investors that Michigan is a great place to locate turbine manufacturing plants. They passed up cleaner air and reduced dependence on volatile natural gas prices. They let us down.
The Republicans contend that they are taking decisive action and tout their so-called Green Michigan Initiative as proof. Their proposal requires that the state Department of Management and Budget purchase 25% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2025. Sen. Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, pointed out that "state government is one of the largest consumers of electrical energy in Michigan" and that if government leads by example, others surely will follow.
What Richardville and his colleagues should realize is that government's lone demand for renewable energy will not bring clean energy investors to Michigan. Economic transformation requires bold action. The only thing that will kick-start large-scale development of renewable energy here is a clear signal from the state that we are serious about capitalizing on our resources.
Renewable energy is Michigan energy. The systems can be manufactured here, installed here, and produce pollution-free energy here. Why are we letting it go to waste?
SARA MARGARET GILBERT is a graduate student at the University of Michigan's Ford School of Public Policy. Write to her in care of the Free Press Editorial Page, 615 W. Lafayette, Detroit, MI 48226 or at oped@freepress.com.
2 comments:
GREEN TEAM:
Here is an opportunity to flex our creative imaginations.
How would we approach this opportunity to engage and expand on their and our collective efforts?
What would that strategic vision encompass and what outcomes can we identify for execution?
What would be the logical and practical "next steps," etc. be?
Please consider the additonal "leveraged possibilities" from both of these organizations foundational understandings and executions.
Let's witness what that might look like and seize the proverbial moment.
Best,
JimR
Well in regards to the overall picture. We still(and always will) need to help develop some singing lessons for the young ones,(help them by creating the opportunities that empower their creative drives that in turn unlock their voices that will teach us the truths that society so sorely needs to learn. The truths about the simple and honest ways of nature) and give them the support to for they will be the people who will truly bring about the quickest and most long lasting changes, that said. Reading about the Dickens Family , I am greatful for people like them. Their combined capacity is a cornucopia of talents, completed projects and far reaching educational threads that are seemingly ripe to be taken to next levels.I definately agree we need to talk with the family (and in so doing we will be speaking to their community and sphere of influence, it's that stone in the pond thing) to help them along, and I am sure Brion ,if he so chooses can also reciprocate with his talents in the wind energy aspects of Southern Exposure etc. etc... The Natural capital that the whole Family has developed is priceless in terms of the synergy with our larger endeavors.Let's definately put this on the agenda to discuss further what this kind of alignment might look like?
In terms of the farmers,I would reccomend an alignment with the Michigan Farmers union of which I have been a(pretty much non- active) member they represent a number of farm families and their operations. I would imagine that due to the current corn for fuel issue at hand they are making money but being for the most part decent folks and not really dumb, they can see the handwriting on the wall that this corn for fuel is a dead-end as it has disrupted the food chain and wreaked havoc on the economy.Besides, starving people is not something Farmers feel very comfortable in having anything to do with, it sort of goes against their grain (Ya think!?) They also have an excellant conduit for educational initiatives and are aligned with the National Farmers Union.Visit www.nfu.org.I would say this would potentially be a good effort to pursue along with the alignment of purpose with the Dickens family.
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