Galloway couple installs backyard windmill; expect to cover 40 percent of their electric bill

By STEVE PRISAMENT
Staff Writer

GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP – Ginny and Kevin Brown installed the community’s first residential zoned windmill on Thursday, Sept. 11.

The windmill arrived Monday, Sept. 8 at their 4-acre Odessa Avenue property, and while it went up three days later, the process of getting there has been much longer than that.

“We actually applied for it before the township had an ordinance,” Kevin Brown said. “There’s been a cost – there’s time invested in this project.”Township Council amended chapter 233 of the land management code on Tuesday, April 23 – Earth Day - making wind and solar energy systems “a permitted accessory use” in all districts.

The ordinance requires all applications for wind energy systems to go before the Development Review Committee - a subcommittee of the Planning Board.

Requirements for installing a small wind energy system include a minimum lot size of one acre. The setback from all property lines must be equal to the height of the structure including the blades at their highest point. Wind turbines are banned in front yards.

It specifies different limits for different sized lots. Only one turbine is allowed on a property. Rooftop installations are not allowed.

The ordinance also specifies power and sound limits, and requires safety devices.

Brown, the production manager for the New Jersey American Water Company, said he worked on the ordinance with township planner Tiffany Cuviello. He said a lot of time was spent on the telephone and computer doing research.

“My husband worked really hard with Tiffany,” Ginny Brown said Saturday, Sept. 13. “It’s taken about a year. We’re kind of glad that they passed an ordinance. Now all you need to do is pass the criteria. Hopefully this makes it a little bit easier for the next people. We’re just excited to see it materialize.”

Kevin Brown said it arrived looking like a giant erector set.

“They set it out on Wednesday,” he said. “The turbine was delivered on Thursday. It was installed by a 50-ton crane. It doesn’t look as ominous once it’s off the ground.”

His wife said it was an interesting process.

“The boom lifted the top,” she said. “Then the fork lift scooted the bottom into the cement pad. Then they were bolted.”

The foundation required 50 yards of concrete, according to Kevin Brown. It is 18 feet square and four feet deep, he said – “not just a patio.”

The Browns, who have four grown children and seven grandchildren, said this has been a dream for years. Residents of Galloway since 1989, they bought their home, located about four miles away from the White Horse Pike, in 2005.

“We love Galloway,” Ginny Brown said. “It’s a nice place to raise your kids. We were just riding around looking for a larger place, knowing our in-laws were coming back with us. We’re near the medical center and they love it. Dad loves mowing the lawn on the riding mower.”

Kevin Brown said they wanted to “go green” and save on energy costs in the future.

“We had geothermal heat,” he said. “Our property is 100 percent electric. Our choices were solar or wind. We love our pristine fields and would hate to have them marred by solar arrays, so we thought wind was the better option.”

In addition, he said, it was easier to get assistance from the New Jersey Clean Energy Program to use wind rather than solar energy.

“There was a waiting list for solar,” he said. “Funding was readily available for wind.”

Brown said the cost, including installation, was $69,000 and the state will pay 60 percent of that.

“Early projections are that we’ll produce 40 percent of our energy bill,” he said. “We expect about a 10-year payback.”

Using all electric, the Browns’ electric bills average $600 a month now, he said.

“As we approach retirement it’s perfect timing,” said Ginny Brown who, like her husband, has worked for New Jersey American Water for more than 30 years. “We had a couple of neighbors over for the installation. ‘Rah! Rah!’ A lot of support.
They got the contractor’s card.”

Alternative Energy Associates of Augusta, in Northern New Jersey, was the Browns’ contractor. The firm is involved in various clean energy programs.

Brown said he is excited about actually capturing power from the turbine, which he said he expects to start doing in a couple of weeks.

“The power will travel by cable to the house where an inverter will correct or condition the power so it’s usable,” he said. “It connects on the house side of the electric meter, constantly feeding energy. When it generates more than the house requires, power will be sent to the electric company grid. The meter will turn backwards – every homeowner’s dream.”

He said noise will be minimal.

“They don’t make much noise,” he said. “The harder it works, the faster the wind is blowing so the noise gets lost in the sound of the wind through the trees.”

The turbine is close to the back and nearly centered on their lot – closer to their home than the far property line.

“A neighbor asked us to move it so we did,” Ginny Brown said of a modification made to the original plan. “We were also going to paint it yellow. They didn’t like that, so we’ve left it the plain metallic color.”

She complimented the township.

“Tiffany was aces,” she said. “The township is interested in going green.”

She said her favorite part of the tower installation is something that hasn’t changed.

“The deer still come,” she said. “They walk around the tower. They lay down by it.”