In York County, wind power lags behind as solar charges forward

From the rolling hills surrounding his Windsor Township home, William Fay's wind turbine juts from the landscape like a giant metal flower.

Standing in a field at his 52-acre farm, he looked up at the motionless blades on the $80,000, 120-foot-tall turbine and said he doesn't have any regrets -- though he had hoped the unit would generate enough electricity to cover the amount consumed by his home, and it hasn't.

At its current rate, it's going to take about 15 years -- 6 years longer than he calculated -- until he breaks even on the unit.

On this day, during this hour, a slight wind couldn't beat resistance out of the blades.

"Did it meet all my expectations?" he pondered, calm as the wind. "No, but most

Breaking even on an $80,000 wind turbine that generates electricity could take 15 years for William Fay of Windsor Township. things don't."

Few people might be so content with the expense of what -- at least on this day -- appears to an expensive metal sculpture.

And that could be why, while state incentives are fueling a solar power surge in York County, wind turbines seem to have gained about as much traction as the futile air floating around the blades of Fay's unit.

A no-blow: Most places in York County have a wind resource of about 5 or 5.5 meters per second, a measurement of speed, said Kathy Belyeu, manager of industry information for the American Wind Energy Association.

The lowest speed recommended for a utility-scale wind project is about 5 meters per second, she said, so the county is "on the low-end of viable" for such projects.

It's probably unlikely that York County will ever house a large, utility-scale wind farm such as those other parts of Pennsylvania, she said.

The wind-speed recommendations for small wind projects such as Fay's vary according to the size and shape of the turbine, she said.

"It's important to do your research ahead of time," she said. "You need to be concerned with how tall the tower, the trees around, and that sort of thing. There are places where it is appropriate and places where it's not appropriate."

Adding solar: Fay did his research, and said his site was measured at an average of about 6 miles per hour. There are times, during storms, when the blades are slicing through the air so quickly that he can hear an eerie "wooh, wooh, wooh" from his bedroom.

These times, so far, haven't compensated for the lulls. So Fay decided to invest in a solar project that, intended to complement the turbine, seems to be on track to outperform it.

The $60,000 rooftop system is expected to pay for itself within about six years, he said. And while he receives federal renewable energy credits for both projects, the state's Sunshine Solar Program kicked in $17,000 toward the cost of installation.

There's no comparable state incentive program for wind power, said John Repetz, spokesman for the state's Department of Environmental Protection.

"One of the advantages of solar is you can put a solar array just about anywhere," he said. "No matter where you are in Pennsylvania, the sun shines. With wind, you need sustainable wind to make it very feasible."

He said putting wind turbines in some areas of Pennsylvania would make about as much sense as trying to fly a kite in the woods.