Second grader starts wind turbine company

After learning about depletion of fossil fuels, Matthew McCarter does something about it

While most second graders are trying to fill up their Christmas lists with the hottest toys this holiday season, Luling’s Matthew McCarter has been working towards decreasing the world’s dependence on fossil fuels.

Matthew, who is a student at Mimosa Park Elementary, likes to watch the Discovery Channel, and it was while watching one of their programs that he heard about the depletion of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels, which are responsible for powering close to 86 percent of the world’s energy production, take millions of years to form and many worry that the world’s supply is running out.

Because of that, there is a movement towards using renewable energy as a solution to this ongoing crisis, and Matthew has begun to harness the power of wind.

Matthew and his grandfather, Richard McCarter, have started a wind turbine business in which they married one of the best turbines on the market, an ARI Turbo 1000, with a hybrid controller that manages both wind and solar power and a 2300 watt inverter.

Because Matthew has had to evacuate several times for hurricanes, he also came up with an idea to install an automatic transfer switch on the turbine, which transfers power to essential items when the grid goes down.

That means no more generators and no more gas or gas lines.

“My dad has an automatic transfer switch on his gas generator and I wanted to know if it would work on a wind turbine,” Matthew said.

For help, Matthew got his grandfather to contact Sandy Petit, a Bayou Gauche native who works with alternative energy. Petit came over and showed the two how an automatic transfer switch would work.

Now, the machine Matthew and his grandfather created is able to supply much-needed power to homes and businesses, especially during a crisis like a hurricane.

“The hurricane takes our power away and the wind from the hurricane spins the blades on the turbine and the blades give us our power back,” Matthew said. “You need that power to run lights and TV.”

Matthew’s grandfather, Richard, owns several businesses and is always on the lookout for green items. In the past, he has worked with bamboo flooring, which is from a plant that replenishes itself every three to five years and saves hundreds of thousands of acres of hardwood. He has also been researching a green source to replace WD-40.

“It’s time we start doing something,” Richard said. “We are giving our children a debt they will not be able to pay. There is free energy out there, but nobody is there to explain it.

“None of the electric companies, none of the gas and oil companies, want everyone to know that there is free energy. It works, and it’s not complicated.”

The wind turbine that Matthew and his grandfather created runs about $2,300, while similar products can cost over $10,000.

“None of that is important though because the best kept secret in the world is that the federal government offers a 30 percent tax credit on all of the above and they give the same credit for the batteries and installation,” Richard said. “The state of Louisiana also gives you a 50 percent credit, so that is 80 percent off your purchase, which makes the net cost after tax credits $459.54.

“That is amazing and the word really does need to get out that the government is serious about replacing fossil fuel. What could be better than that?”

In fact, Matthew doesn’t even care if you purchase a turbine from him and his grandfather. He just wants people to start looking at renewable energy. Matthew recently traveled to Sam’s Club in Kenner where he showed the crowd how his turbine worked in order to spread a message of alternative power.

“It was very popular and everyone was interested, but nobody knew how it worked,” Matthew said. “People need to read more.”

And while Matthew is happy to be spreading the news of renewable energy, his grandfather is just happy to be working with him.

“I gave Matthew a picture I took at Sam’s when he was by himself in the display,” Richard said. “I enlarged it and wrote ‘Matthew, thank you so much for helping me start this business.’ Other than being my grandson, Matthew is my friend.”

 

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