Hunt Country Vineyards Taps Wind Power

Bird-friendly, efficient, nearly silent new-generation turbine powers Finger Lakes winery

Branchport, N.Y. -- Wind machines have a bit of a PR problem with consumers. Mention wind power, and often the response is: “But they’re so noisy.” Or, “They kill lots of birds, don’t they? And they’re so expensive.”

The new vertical axis wind turbine recently installed at Hunt Country Vineyards in Branchport, N.Y., is quiet, bird-friendly and came with energy rebates to help lower the cost while the owner reaps the benefits of being at least partially off the energy grid. According to Art Hunt, co-owner of the winery, the wind turbine was officially dedicated Oct. 9.

If the neighbors weren’t paying attention, they probably never noticed the new power producer. The noise created by the wind turbine is negligible -- at maximum, the sound is only about 8 decibels, similar to the hum of an average refrigerator.

Hunt Country’s wind turbine was designed and built by Mariah Power, a company based in Reno, Nev., and built at its manufacturing plant in Michigan. Known as the Windspire, the turbine is 30 feet tall and 4 feet wide. It generates 1.2 kW of power, or approximately 2,000 kilowatt hours per year in 12 mph average winds. It can be set up for a 110v or 220v current.

Three sets of tall, narrow airfoils catch the wind while spinning around a vertical axis. As the rotor turns, a generator converts the energy into electricity, and the inverter then converts the electricity to an alternating current that can be used for a home, or in this case, a winery. The turning blades give the appearance of a solid object for birds to avoid, and there have been no recorded bird fatalities to date with any Windspire turbine.

The Windspire 1.2 kW wind turbine costs between $9,000 and $12,000 fully installed. However, a 30% federal tax credit and other local, state and/or federal rebates can reduce the cost to as low as $3,800. Average payback time is under 10 years; the turbine is designed to operate for 20 years or more.

Hunt serves on a local wind power committee in Branchport, and has been working to make the winery more energy self-sufficient and sustainable. His daughter, Suzanne, who is president of HuntGreen LLC, an energy and environmental consulting company based in Washington, D.C., put him in touch with Mariah Power. After Mariah Power’s production facility opened in March, Hunt signed up for one of the first turbines to be installed in New York state.

“I’m in favor of renewable energy,” Hunt told Wines & Vines, “but it needs to be done right. We’ll run the turbine for a year and log the output. Then maybe we’ll put in a larger one.” The winery is located about one-third of the way up the hill from Lake Keuka, and the winds are somewhat light and variable. “We’re not as windy as at other Finger Lakes wineries located at the top of the hill, but this turbine was designed for light, shifting winds.”

Hunt Country Vineyards also makes its own bio-diesel fuel out of used vegetable oil collected from area restaurants (“Our tractor exhaust smells like hamburgers and French fries,” Hunt noted), composts the leftover grape pomace mixed with animal manure, and has installed tubes for in-floor, geo-thermal heating in construction projects including its new winery production facility.

The winery also earned a five-year Sustainable Agricultural Research and Education grant from the USDA to look at options for reducing or eliminating herbicide use in the vineyard.