The shells of former automobiles line both sides of the wide, muddy path that runs through the lot behind the office of Pearl Road Auto Parts. Every wheel has been removed, many are missing doors and all are unmistakably worn. It’s the way the Kaplan family has been doing business for four generations — recycling the guts of dead cars to keep other cars alive — and for the mostly operational cars cruising down nearby I-480, this operation is completely concealed by a tall green fence.
Last September, the Kaplans erected a 140-foot wind turbine on their lot that rises high above the fence and makes one point clear: Very little is wasted in this family.
While Myron Kaplan runs the auto yard, it’s his sons Jon and Kevin who have championed the windmill project. Taking advantage of a $147,500 grant from the Ohio Department of Development’s Advanced Energy Fund along with a few other federal grants, tax credits and incentives, they started digging the foundation last May.
Last Friday, a few dozen environmentalists, media types and friends of the project gathered around the hefty cement foundation for a ribbon-cutting ceremony. If the number of politicians attending a ribbon-cutting is metric for measuring its import, then it’s notable that three Cleveland councilmen appeared. Among them was Ward 15 Councilman Brian Cummins.
“I think it’s great,” says Cummins. “Jon and his father, Myron, worked on it so hard for so long. I don’t think even the people that know them, even the people and the businesses around them, can fully comprehend what they’ve achieved.”
This article appears in Dec 9-15, 2009.
frank
Why doesnt someone point out that this project would be horribly ineffiecent if it wasnt for all the “free” government grant money?
If these projects had to stand on their own two feet economically, they would fail miserably.
Do you really want to wait for the wind to blow before you take a hot shower or browse the internet?
if we could set up a turbine in front of your mouth, we could power the entire county.
TellTheTruth — horribly inefficient? “free” money? stand on their own two feet?
Sounds like you’re describing the petro-chemical-freeway-road system in America; or the Nuclear Power Industry. Give me a break, wind and solar a core renewable energies that will surely play a major role in our future energy power sources. They are not baseline power sources but very important nonetheless. The USA is not even in the top 5 of countries with industries developing these technologies. Our subsidies pale in comparison (relative to GDP) to these other leading countries. It’s about time the Feds and States started funding, yes subsidizing this industry.
By comparison, look what is spent annually on our transportation infrastructure as well as the amount of subsidies given to the nuclear and coal power companies.
Maybe we could put giant windmills on huge magic carpets and we would have “GREEN MASS TRANSIT”
OR..
we could put giant solar panels on sheets of plywood and then you could fly to work,,, thus , reducing your carbon footprint.
Solar energy is horibly inefficient in this part of America… Wind energy in our area is also a non-starter..
We need alternatives,,, just not these,,, Put your (our) resources into an energy source that has real potential….