Van Wall more than John Deere

Van Wall Equipment in Colfax does more than sell wind turbine equipment through its Van Wall Energy subsidiary. The store itself is powered by a 50kW wind turbine. The location has had so much success with its first turbine a second one is being erected soon, Van Wall Wind Energy Specialist Jake West said.

“There are 13 stores. Five of them are equipment dealerships, and so far three out of the five have turbines,” West said. “By the end of the year, four out of the five will be completely wind powered. It’s pretty fantastic.”

The Van Wall group has been around in one form or another since 1944, according to its website, but didn’t get into the energy business until 2009.

“By the end of the year, we will have invested about $2.3 million in producing our own on-site electricity with the wind. That allows us to produce electricity for about 6 cents instead of buying it for 8 to 11 cents,” West said. “It will save us millions and millions of dollars over the next 20 years, because basically we will eliminate the risk of electricity costs going up on us.”

The idea for Van Wall Energy came about after the events of the Greensburg, Kan., tornado that destroyed the town.

“The owner, Don Van Houweling, has been selling John Deere tractors for 35 years,” West said. “Don has a friend from Greensburg, Kan., who owned a dealership there. The tornado wiped out the town and the dealership. A company called Endurance Wind Power came into town and donated two turbines to help rebuild the hospital.”

“(The other owner) is a businessman who saw the value and went, ‘Hey, we’ve been around a 100 years selling John Deere tractors, and we have this large customer base. Wouldn’t it be cool if a John Deere dealer was able to provide our customers with wind energy?’” West said.

The owner in Kansas then talked with several other big John Deere dealers in the country, including Van Houweling, about selling wind energy equipment.

“Don jumped 100 percent on board. He loved the idea,” West said. “They formed this network called Harvest the Wind Network. Basically, they hired successful people that have been in the wind industry to teach us tractor guys how to sell wind turbines and do it right — install them, maintain them and provide value with our additional customers.”

“The last thing we want to do is sell something that is going to hurt our 35 year reputation,” West said. “We can’t afford that. Harvest Wind Network looks into wind turbine manufactures finances, looks into their quality and makes sure that it is a company that we can sell and do business with and that they will be here for the long haul.”

According to its website, HWN has successfully installed and distributed more than 150 wind turbines and is supported by 12 “elite” local independent owners. The site also said that they have two dozen more projects in the works.

“The wind turbine that we have at Colfax and 17 other sites around Iowa is this Endurance Wind Power product that was initially given to Greensburg, Kan., to help build the greenest city in the country,” West said. “Today we have three of our own stores with the 50kW wind turbines, and we will be installing a second one so that we can have 100 percent of our power produced by our own on site wind turbine.”

“Don is in this 100 percent, and he’s seen the value,” West said. “It also looks pretty good to our customers when they see us making this investment in our own stores.”

Van Wall Equipment is located at 502 Highway 117 N. in Colfax and may be reached by phone at (515) 674-3565

Staff writer Ty Rushing may be contacted at (641) 792-3121, ext. 426, or at trushing@newtondailynews.com.