By DOUG GRAVES
Ohio Correspondent

BROOKVILLE, Ohio — When he first erected his six wind turbines on 120-foot towers, neighbors thought Ralph Dull had lost his mind. Nowadays those same neighbors make frequent stops and want to learn more about this money-saving idea.

“When I first spotted them I was skeptical like most people,” said Ray Meinke, who farms in nearby Phillipsburg, Ohio. “They’re right off State Route 40, so you can’t miss ‘em. At that time it just didn’t look right.”

Norman Beverly operates a hog farm north of Greenville, Ohio, and has long looked for ways to cut costs. Four years ago he was among the multitude who gazed and laughed, but now he wants to learn more.

“You can’t knock the concept if it works, and it may be the wave of the future,” he said. “With the cost of gas skyrocketing, wind energy looks quite appealing.”

The turbines came to life on Dull’s 2,800-acre farm in western Ohio in 2004. At full capacity they generate 60 kilowatts of power and save the family 15 percent a year (roughly $6,000) in electrical costs. Their utility bill is approximately $40,000 a year.

There’s more. Thanks to the wind power, a machine in one building produces hydrogen, made from electricity and water. Dull’s office, which is on the premises just below the turbines, is geothermally heated and cooled. He dries his seed corn by burning rejected corn instead of propane, and he grinds corncobs to sell as horse bedding and mulch.

Those who wanted nothing to do with Dull’s oddball concept four years ago now want (and are even scheduling) meetings with the entrepreneur. A few weeks ago, farmers from Greene County in Ohio boarded a bus and visited the Dull farm to learn more.
Last November, Gov. Ted Strickland, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Ohio Agriculture Director Robert Boggs visited to take a closer look at the operations.

Wind power represents only 1 percent of the nation’s energy, but last year the United States led the world with more than 5,000 megawatts of new wind capacity. The U.S. Department of Energy states that wind power could produce 20 percent of the nation’s energy by 2030.

Ohio’s only utility-scale wind farm produces 7.2 megawatts of electricity, enough to serve about 1,850 homes. By comparison, Texas had 4,446 megawatts of wind capacity at the end of last year, while California had 2,439 megawatts.

In a report in USA Today, Strickland said, “Mr. Dull is demonstrating through his farming practices that you can have a profitable farming operation while caring for the earth.”

Ohio’s new energy law, initiated by Strickland, requires the state’s four investor-owned utilities to generate 12.5 percent of their power from renewable sources such as wind and solar by 2025.

Dull, 79, said renewable energy technologies are advancing quickly and he never regrets the day he erected the turbines.

Family, friends and neighbors all agree that he is an Ohio pioneer in green farming and renewable energy and are not surprised by his determination to see his project through.

And, while experts say southwestern Ohio doesn’t have sufficient wind to make large-scale projects economical, more people like Dull are likely to make investments in small turbines to supply a portion of their power.

“There’s new things you can do in this new area of questionable energy, and you haven’t seen anything yet,” he said.

Last week, Ralph Dull and his sons were one of five farm families in Ohio to receive the annual Conservation Farm Family award, presented at the Farm Science Review near London, Ohio, from the Ohio Division of Soil and Water.