Study aims to put Madeline Island on path to wind power

By Joe Cadotte & photojournalist Harry Baker, FOX 21 News

Madeline Island is making plans to be powered by the wind.

It's one step closer to being one of the first islands in the country to get 100 percent of its power from wind turbines.

The Alternative Energy Committee in the island community of La Pointe is working to ensure Madeline Island remains one of the most unpolluted places in wisconsin.

The committee is using a 164–foot-high data collection tower at Big Bay State Park to determine if there's enough wind to set up turbines. Big Bay State Park Superintendent Mark Eggleson says rules had to be changed just to get the tower in the air.

"There's been a prohibition on putting up towers in state parks.  So we had to get special permission even to put up this temporary tower here on the island," he said.

Eggleson says it will take 12 months of data collection to determine if it is feasible to build turbines on Madeline Island.

"When we're looking at a project of that size, the people who are going to invest in it want to see some good data ahead of time," he said.

La Pointe Alternative Energy Committee member Carl Frederickson says power outages are less likely with wind energy.

"To have the equipment here and running is certainly a lot more reliable and a lot less vulnerable than what we have now with the wire going under the lake," he said.

Frederickson says the data being collected over the past seven months indicates that there is enough wind to power madeline island.

"It can have sustained winds around 30 to 40 knots for three or four days," he said.

Madeline Island currently runs off of electricity that is generated from burning coal.

"We have fish consumption advisories in the Great Lakes that are there only because of our past energy choices," said La Pointe Alternative Energy Committee Chairman Larry Bean.

Bean says wind power will mean a cleaner environment.

"This is a clean energy choice and will not affect the fish in the Great Lakes, or the people that live here," he said.

The committee's goal is to have the island running on wind power by 2025.