Over on Belknap Point Rd, on the Winnipesaukee waterfront in Gilford, not too far up from the NH Marine Patrol Hdqtrs, there's a single family house that besides having a very nice looking tennis court, also has a pretty good sized electric-generating wind turbine atop a tall steel tower near their tennis court. Yesterday on Sunday, while bicycling in that area, I noticed it for the first time and was a little surprised that the local Gilford zoning would allow for such a big wind turbine in a shoreline residential area but then again whatdoIknowaboutit anyway?
Who knows but just maybe that wind turbine can get the electric meter for the house to go backwards or something? Seems like it might just be a great way to turn your windy waterfront location into a mini-Winni windfarm! At the time yesterday afternoon, the wind turbine was spinning & spinning & spinning & spinning & spinning ........ad infinitum! .....it was pretty danged windy yesterday! ....... so it must have been making and selling electricity back into the electric grid to the NH Electric Coop ...... wow......how about that! I think I want one just like that on my little lot so's I can go do the same thing....put those windy kilowatts to work selling electricity for me!
Is one of these not-so-small residential wind turbines that makes your electric meter go backwards an expensive and unattractive looking, money-losing contraption, or is it a money-saving machine whose appearance sort of grows on the owner every time he/she gets the monthly electric bill?
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This is probably the answer to my point about a supposed Gilford zoning ordinance that prohibits wind turbines. A quick google search of "New Hampshire RSA wind turbines" found this
http://www.nh.gov/oep/resourcelibrary/swes/ which has a link to HB310, a NH law passed in 2008 that says among other things that "collection of renewable energy shall not be unreasonably limited by use of municipal zoning powers or the unreasonable interpretation of such powers except where necessary to protect the public health, safety, and welfare."
Picture hereth yon reader .... a high quality photograph, taken on a bright sunny day, of said not-very-small wind turbine atop a tall steel tower nestled attractively next to yon tennis court on a luxurious Lake Winnipesaukee, Belknap Point, Gilford, waterfront residential lot that includes a very nice, single family, shoreline residence......spin-spin-spin!
It also has a link, Renewable Energy Incentives, for renewable energy incentives that includes property tax exemptions applied to tower and wind turbine from individual towns(?).
Like, money probably makes a huge big difference in how people think about having a wind turbine on their residential property; receiving electricity credit off your monthly electric bill by causing your electric meter to run backwards, being property tax exempt from local property tax, and getting federal tax credits as well are among the items to consider when thinking about installing a personal wind turbine tower on your property.
Is a residential wind turbine something you might consider, and is it a winner or a loser type of an item?
http://energy.gov/energysaver/articles/small-wind