Wind Turbines Vanish from Auburn Ice Rink
The guy who originally sold them to Scott could have sold ice to an Eskimo. Scott talked about applying for grants for them, but never did. They should never have been built down in a gully. They just never got enough wind. – John Fellhauer.
The website for The Pond ice skating facility, 9999 E. Washington St. in Auburn Township, touts itself as “the only wind turbine powered ice rink in Ohio,” with twin towers flanking the building on the east and west.
But after seven years as an iconic local landmark, both towering turbines are gone.
The west tower was taken down during the winter and the east tower was removed this week, said facility owner Elisa Nash. Neither had been operational for several weeks.
“They were sold to Northern Power because the area didn’t get enough wind,” Nash said during a March 25 phone interview.
Northern Power spokesman John Fellhauer confirmed last Wednesday his company purchased the towers from former Pond owner Scott Lowry, because their locations were not consistently windy enough to generate the electric power needed at the rink.
Fellhauer said Lowry offered to sell the turbines to him after first offering them to Nash and her husband. Lowry had kept ownership of the turbines after he sold The Pond to the Nashes.
“Elisa evaluated them and decided that the total wind there was not enough and the only thing the turbines were good for was advertising,” Fellhauer said. “During the years they were up, they only generated about 230,000 kilowatt hours, only enough to offset their electric bill just a little bit. To compare, we have the same turbines on a wind farm in Iowa and they generate 2.2 million kilowatts.
“These two are heading to Italy, once the pandemic is all over,” he added. “They will be loaded onto open shipping containers, probably out of the port of Boston, but that is on hold now.”
Fellhauer said a new turbine of similar size costs about $400,000 installed, but because of rapid changes in technology and systems that gave disappointing results, there is very little market for used turbines in the United States.
“People are just happy if we take them and it costs about $12,000 to take one down,” Fellhauer said.
He blames the turbines’ positioning in a low area for their lack of success at The Pond.
“The guy who originally sold them to Scott could have sold ice to an Eskimo,” he said. “Scott talked about applying for grants for them, but never did. They should never have been built down in a gully. They just never got enough wind.”
The space formerly occupied by the west turbine has been paved over for a much needed parking lot expansion, but the Nashes have other plans for the east lot.
“We are putting in a full turf field for soccer, lacrosse and baseball,” Elisa Nash said. “It will be 230 feet by 110, and it will be bright blue, so people will notice it. It will be a bit of a shocker, but I think it’ll be pretty and people will like it. It certainly gets your attention.”
She added, “Our community needs more fields for the kids to play on. We have an indoor field upstairs, but it’s only half size. This will give the younger brothers and sisters an outdoor space where they can play, too. It’s pretty exciting stuff and we think it will be great for the community.”
She estimated the new field will be completed in a few weeks and said she hopes it will be ready when the rink re-opens once the COVID-19 crisis is over.
Nash and her husband, John, purchased The Pond from Lowry and his business partner eight years ago. “I was program and skating director for eight years before that, so we’ve been involved for 16 years,” she said. “I’m a little disappointed about the wind turbines, but things change all the time and you adapt. And another thing we will need to change, we’ll need to take the two turbines off our logo.”
