The incentive money has been approved and the cement foundation has been poured for Mexico’s first wind turbine, which is expected to be operating at some point this summer.

The turbine will be erected on state Route 69 in the yard of Mexico resident, Vito Fleming, who anticipates experiencing a tall order of savings from the structure that will power his home.

Fleming has been paying, on average, around $200 to $300 for his electric bill each month. With all the discussion of renewable energy throughout media and commercial outlets, he decided to research his options.

Fleming turned to Alternative Power Solutions in Brewerton, a contractor that offers a variety of renewable energy source development, including solar and wind projects. According to Owen Pugh, president of Alternative Power Solutions, Fleming’s property offered the needed specifications to support the development of a 120-foot wind turbine.

“We did a wind study on his property and found that his property offered good wind speed,” Pugh said.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), through a contract with AWS Truewind, has made detailed wind resource information available to help facilitate the development of wind energy projects across the state.

“All we do is punch in the customer’s address and get the GPS coordinates and run the coordinates through the software they offer,” Pugh said.

He added that the majority of Oswego County has adequate wind speed to support a wind turbine.

According to Pugh, the wind turbine that will be constructed on Fleming’s property will reduce his carbon footprint by 10,662 pounds of carbon dioxide each year. “That is like not driving your car 12,974 miles,” Pugh said. “It’s also like planting almost an acre of trees.”

Also, the structure is expected to produce 10,000-12,000 kilowatt hours (kwh), each year, which will reduce the Flemings’ electric bill by 80-100 percent, he added.
Pugh added that the turbine construction costs around $60,000. However, NYSERDA incentives and federal and state tax credits are offered for such projects, which resulted in Fleming only needing to produce 20-25 percent of the cost of the entire project.

“It is a no brainer,” Fleming said about his decision to construct the wind turbine. “I don’t know why everybody doesn’t do it.”

This is a question that Pugh echoes.

“With all the money that is available and the technology?” he said. “I would say eight out of 10 customers that I talk to are unaware of all the state and federal money that is available for this type of project. I feel if people knew more about it, I think there would be a lot more of it.”