It all started with a modest metal windmill.

In between Elks Club meetings and square dancing, a retired Cowlitz County businessman has found a new hobby.

“It was very rewarding, to think that I could be collecting instead of paying my electric bill,” says Don Sims.

Back in the early 1980's Sims put up his first windmill. He says it was just something for fun -- for relaxation, and something to watch.

But it got him to thinking about bigger things. And before he knew it, he was installing a modern, thirty-two foot wind turbine in his backyard. When the wind blows, the six-foot blades can really get whipping. And in the community, excitement is building.

Sims told me “the tower showed up, we had half a dozen people on the road while we were unloading it. So there's been a little bit of interest.”

And it's easy to figure out why people are interested. Sims explained to me that there are incentives available that can make his little project profitable.

How?

He actually hooked his wind turbine into the Cowlitz County electric grid. And that has his meter doing something a bit unusual.

“You hook into the grid, and what you produce turns your meter backwards,” said Sims. But that's not all. Each year the County PUD will be giving Sims a credit for the wind energy he produces.

How much?

Sims said “a thousand to two thousand dollars a year back, in actual cash.”

Still, he said, it's about something more.

“I think anything that's going to help the energy situation's the wave of the future.”

Was it hard to install?

Sims actually did it himself. And when asked if others should follow in his footsteps, he emphatically said “let’s do it.”