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Oakdale couple catches the breeze - and electricity

Newsday.com
August 20, 2009
LInks: Article | Video

You have to crane your neck to see it through the tops of oak and spruce trees: There, behind a modern white house in Oakdale, three slender blades spin in the breeze.

They're atop the first backyard wind turbine on Long Island, according to Molloy College's Sustainability Institute, which tracks municipal wind turbine regulations. And they're ready to catch the breezes off the Connetquot River.

At an open house Thursday celebrating the turbine's installation the day before, Patty and Bob Abrams appeared smitten.

"After dinner, we pulled up our lawn chairs and we just sat out here watching it turn," said Patty Abrams, 57.

"It makes a pleasing, low, 'oooooooh,' " said Bob Abrams, 69.

Thursday morning was bright and calm, and the blades were still. Then, slowly, they spun. "There it goes!" Patty shouted. "It's turning!"

Because they live on the river's edge, the Abramses stand to benefit from breezes off the water. The turbine - a Skystream 3.7 - could cut their $359 monthly power bill by half or even more, said their son Keith Abrams, who with his wife, Jessica, owns Green in Greene, a wind turbine company in Coxsackie, in upstate Greene County. And when winter's winds blow, he said, the turbine likely will capture enough energy to power the house and excess that can be sold to the Long Island Power Authority.

Islip Town in December became the first on Long Island to allow wind turbines - up to 45 feet tall - in residential backyards. Now the town is looking to extend the height of turbines on industrial properties to 156 feet. The higher the turbine, the more power it generates.

Islip is "the most progressive town in the state," said Jessica Abrams, 27, Green in Greene's president.

Town policy restricts the height of residential turbines to 42 percent of the width of the lot, Keith Abrams said, so the turbine topped out at 39 feet.

It's expected to generate 2.4 kilowatts at a wind speed of 14 mph. The model costs about $25,000 and qualifies for a Long Island Power Authority rebate of up to 60 percent of the cost and a federal tax credit that covers 30 percent.

The turbine consists of a slender, galvanized steel tube topped by the three curved fiberglass polycarbonate blades. It sits near the Abrams' back porch.

A computer inside the head of the structure transmits data to the couple's laptop. Patty Abrams checked for the latest update, then gushed: "We saved eight pounds in carbon footprint Thursday."

Warren Hasselriis, 62, stopped by for a look and said he's considering a turbine for his nearby canal-front property.

"I got rid of my pickup truck," he said. "You save where you can. It's better for everyone."
Next door, Annette Petrocelli was less convinced. The turbine appears on the left edge of her broad river view. But, she said, she'll get used to it.

"If it's going to save them money, maybe everybody on the river will have it next year," she said.