Renewable energy powers home of county couple

The price of fuel to warm homes and water in homes over the winter winter has county homeowners looking for an alternative.
A Suttons Bay Township resident made that change 20 years ago.

Now Steve Smiley is looking forward to the day when 100 percent of homes in northwest Lower Michigan are powered by renewable fuel.

“It’s a race against time­— we’re running out of oil, natural gas and uranium,” said Smiley, an energy economist with more than 20 years practical experience in energy efficiency, wind and solar applications.

The 2,400-square-foot home he shares with wife, Susan Kopka, is 99 percent “off the grid.” “This will happen (to all homes) in the next decades. It may be two or four (decades) — but it’s coming soon,” he said.

Construction of Smiley’s home began in 1985 and has continued in stages. Both a 1,600 square-foot main house and 800 square-foot studio area are entirely powered using renewable fuel sources: wind, sun and wood. A seldom-used backup of natural gas is available.

“Our goal is to be 100 percent renewable, we’re not quite there,” he said.

Smiley came of age during the “Energy Crisis” in the 1970s. While many discarded the implementation of alternative energies to fossil fuels as conventional energy costs decreased, Smiley continued to embrace it.

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