In the Town of East Hampton, there are now three working wind turbines -- the most recent of which went into use earlier this month on .
Wind Sine, a renewable energy design and installation company located in Westhampton, completed the installation on Jan. 5, according to Anthony Iacono.
The 10-kilowatt turbine, with 11 foot blades, sit on a 120 foot tall lattice and is the second on Long Lane. The first-ever in town was installed at in 2010 after the town board approved it in a split decision. The installed on the , fell outside of the town's jurisdiction and did not need approval.
It was the Mahoney's turbine that gave Iacono the idea to put one on his family's seven-acre poultry farm, which was running an approximately $12,000 electricity bill annually.
"He set the ground work," Iacono said of his neighbor. Iacono's application was relatively easy, as Mahoney's had just a year earlier. Still, the permitting process took about one year.
The wind turbine practically paid for itself. It cost $90,000 to install, he said, but the Long Island Power Authority incentive paid $35,000 of the cost and grants from federal agencies like the U.S. Department of Agriculture, have covered almost all the rest. While he is still waiting for a few to come through, Iacono said he expects to end up paying just $5,000 out of pocket. "It just made good sense," he said.
The wind turbine only generates electricity for the farm as the grants are meant to encourage small rural farms to seek alternative energy, Iacono said.
Depending on wind speeds, the turbine will cover 60-percent of his electrical bills on the farm, which run high due to the heat lamps and refrigeration it requires.
Iacono Farm has a long history, starting as a vegetable farm in 1929 and transitioning to a poultry farm in 1948, selling chickens and eggs, as a way to keep business going through all seasons, Iacono said.
On windy days, Iacono said the turbine can be heard, but that it isn't very loud. "It's no more noise than a good howling wind," he said. He can barely hear it from his house, which is about 120 feet from it.
And, the chickens don't seem to mind it either, he said.
