KITTERY, Maine - Eight months after installing a 50 kilowatt wind turbine on top of a hill at the Kittery Waste Transfer Station town officials have chosen to call it quits on the alternative energy project due to its "underperformance."

Town Manager Jon Carter announced Tuesday the town will look to sell the turbine back to the manufacturer, Entegrity Wind Systems, and will in turn recoup the $191,028 in funds used for the turbine, the tower and installation costs.

Having recently received results from the eight-month wind energy demonstration project, Carter said analysis of the real-time data provided by the wind turbine shows that over the time period from October 2008 to May 2009, the actual production of electricity was only 15 percent of what was originally anticipated.

The reason for its underperformance according to Carter, is most likely due to "ground clutter causing significant wind turbulence."

"The moral of the story is we thought we did enough work to figure out the wind patterns and we thought we had a site that worked, but we didn't realize it was not high enough to not be affected by tree turbulence," Carter said.

As a result, Entegrity Wind Systems of Boulder, Colo., has agreed to refund the town the entire cost of project and once the community has been compensated, the company will remove the turbine and the tower, and ship the unit to a location west of the Mississippi.

"While the performance of the wind turbine was disappointing, the project clearly demonstrated that the 50 kw Entegrity performs well below expectations when installed in areas with considerable wind turbulence resulting from trees and buildings," Carter said in a statement.

Calling it a "natural disappointment," Carter said the project had built up quite a bit of support in the community.

The town's decision to install the unit followed months of wind testing at the Transfer Station and was aided by a grant from the Maine Public Utilities Commission aimed at bringing new sources of energy online to help reduce reliance on fossil fuels linked to global warming.

"We could've left it up and it could've been an icon to the work we're attempting to do in Kittery," said Carter.

The ultimate decision was to "face reality," he said and realize the turbine wasn't reducing the cost of electricity at the rate originally expected.

Luckily the contract the town and Entegrity came to terms with involved certain performance stipulations that would allow the town to back out under the current scenario.

"What we did do right was select a company with a lot of experience in warranties, that stood behind it and I think it was a valuable demonstration," he said.

For now the turbine will remain where it is until December, said Carter and once Entegrity fully repays the town the turbine will come down and be shipped out West. Carter said he anticipates that will be sometime in January.

Once that happens, all of the town money used on the project will return to the original account. Then the town will have to wait to hear from the state about how they want the grant money to be used.

Meanwhile Carter said the town will continue to evaluate energy efficiency and renewable energy projects to reduce energy costs in the future.