Energy Park

The Danny Young Memorial Renewable Energy Park is a regional resource designed to educate and help interested consumers make informed decisions about the incorporation of renewable technologies at their homes and businesses. The park is named in memory of Danny Young, a Midwest Energy Cooperative apprentice lineman who was killed in a tragic gas line explosion in December 2006. A small memorial area is included in the park’s design.

The park features a 4kW solar panel display and a 2.4 kW wind turbine. A 5 kW turbine was initially installed, but it broke after only ten months in operation. Technicians were unable to determine the cause of and fix the problem wiht the 5 kW turbine, and the vendor recommended replacing it with a different model that he believed would be more easily and readily serviced as necessary. The size of both the solar and the wind unit is representative of what a typical residential application might include.

Each of the elements is grid-tied and metered to provide real-time information and data on output and availability. A live data center allows you to see and understand how current conditions translate into renewable energy generation, and the economic analysis provides an overview of the cost of the system, the monthly output, and the resulting cost per kilowatt hour.

Many people are considering incorporating renewable energy at their homes or businesses, and Midwest Energy Cooperative is fully supportive of those initiatives. Our goal with the Energy Park is simply to help you understand the financial investment required and what you can expect in this region in terms of generation.