Rachael Jackson
Capital News Service
Dec. 18, 2004 12:00 AM
ROCK HALL, Md. - On a blustery day in 2001, Megan Walkup looked out the
window of her office at the Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge in Rock
Hall, Md., and marveled at how the wind was shaking the edge of the roof.
It was March. Walkup's calendar featured a picture of an old-fashioned
windmill and a bit of inspiration: "A windmill's true power is only
revealed when it faces the wind; a person's - only when he faces
adversity."
Walkup thinks it was more than a coincidence.
"I just got to thinking, why not harness that wind?" said Walkup,
the refuge's contracting officer.
Since then, she has spearheaded an effort to power the refuge's office with
alternative energy, including a 60-foot-tall tower topped with a turbine to
capture that powerful wind.
Now on windy days, Walkup thinks less about the shaking roof and more about all
the electricity that is being generated. The windmill, in addition to several
solar panels, provides a fair amount of power in the summer and frequently all
the power the refuge needs during the windy winter months.
The small facility on Maryland's Eastern Shore is the first national refuge in
the Northeast to have an electricity-generating windmill. It took pains to set
it up so that it does not pose a threat to birds and bats - the biggest
environmental criticism of wind power. That is a particular concern in areas
like the refuge, which is designed to protect birds like the southern bald eagle
and the tundra swan.
Unlike commercial-scale wind farms, which may have scores of such turbines on
top of towers that are hundreds of feet tall, the refuge has just one turbine on
a shorter tower. Even though taller turbines generate more power, the refuge
kept the tower to 60 feet to reduce the threat to birds.
The refuge supplements its power with six solar panels and is looking into other
ways to lower its energy needs.