Utility, Dairy Farm Partner on Wind Turbine
Green Mountain Power has partnered with a family farm to set up its third wind turbine to save money on electricity.
The 250-cow Nea-Tocht farm in Ferrisburg, Vt. is owned by the VanderWey family.
The family says the turbine will save them $2,200 a year on electricity. Raymond VanderWey says Nea-Tocht is Dutch for "never thought." He says the family never thought they'd be milking their cows with renewable energy.
The turbine can produce about 155,000 kilowatts a year, equal to the amount of electricity used by 25 homes.
The utility's first community-scale turbine was installed at the Northlands Job Corps in Vergennes in 2011. The second was at the Blue Spruce Farm in Bridport in 2013, also the first Vermont farm to put power from cow manure on the grid.
