The tiny borough of Ocean Gate made history when it became the first community in New Jersey to install the first municipally owned and operated wind turbine. Now the borough is about to double its success by installing a second wind turbine on the grounds of its water treatment plant.

Mayor Paul Kennedy says the entire structure was delivered on February 14th, He says right now “the towers’ laying on the ground put together and the turbine and the blades are inside our Public Works garage now for the past several weeks and the electric work’s all done and we’re just waiting for the net meter from the power company and its going to go up.” He says they’ve already put up the first 20 feet of the tower on its foundation.

Kennedy says the second turbine is 80 to 90 percent paid for. He says the total cost of the second turbine is $386,000 and the borough received $322,410 from the American Recovery Reinvestment Act. In addition, Kennedy says, once turbine is up and running they’re going to get a rebate from the New Jersey Clean Energy program.

To help reduce noise levels, Kennedy says they’re applying three coats of sound-proofing paint on it and the blades are going to be set 20 feet higher. Kennedy says Contractor J. Fletcher Cramer wll also be making some adjustments to its first tower to help reduce noise levels.

Kennedy says the second turbine will help generate electricity for the fire house and water treatment plant. Hopefully about 40-50% of the usage. 

He says it looks like it will be up and running in a few weeks.

Kennedy says they’re seeing at 30 to 40 percent savings o n its electricity from the first 50 KW turbine it set up in 2009.

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