That Makes Cents: Wind power

Hull resident
"It's a shame not to take advantage of it."

The town of Hull uses two wind turbines to capture the wind and to convert it into electricity.

Dick Miller, Hull Light operations manager
"For the last seven years we haven't had a rate hike."

The town gets over 10% of its electricity from these specially designed turbines.

And these "wind-for-power" projects are also starting to show up at homes and stores.

Brian Braginton-Smith, Community Wind Power, LLC
"The turbines that we see behind us are swift wind turbines."

At this Christy's Market on the Cape, these three small wind turbines quietly generate electricity for the store and could eventually produce about 13% of what they use in the store!

Distributors say that they can be installed on almost any home that has enough wind and could potentially save homeowners up to 50% of their electric bills.

Brian Braginton-Smith, Community Wind Power, LLC
"Figuring that your wind energy is level, you could probably expect to offset somewhere between $600 and $800 a year in energy costs."

But this eco-friendly investment doesn't come cheap. The turbines cost about $10,000, plus the price of installation. Distributors say it could take up to 12 years to recoup the cost, then you could see the savings!

Now that makes cents.

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