Will Thompson of Nexamp assembles the wind turbine before hoisting it into position high over the marshes of West Gloucester.
Whatever you do, don’t call them windmills. Unlike the creaky, wooden monoliths of old used to grind grain or pump water, these high-tech wonders generate electricity, much like a turbine inside a power plant.
And that’s just what is happening high atop a hill overlooking the marshes of the Annisquam River in West Gloucester, thanks to a wind turbine recently erected by North Andover’s own Nexamp Inc.
Located on appropriately named Hill Top Road, the 50-foot tall, privately owned turbine will generate enough energy to power the home it is wired to, and then some, reports Will Thompson, vice president for integration at the three-year-old company, located in the East Mill on High Street.
The property owners, John and Mary Nelson of 65 Hill Top Road, typically use about 3,700-kilowatt hours of electricity a year, Thompson said, while the turbine will produce at least 6,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity. That means that at the end of the year, the Nelsons may actually be making money, as the power company will be sending them checks for the difference.
This wind turbine in Gloucester, built by Nexamp of North Andover, can generate at least 6,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, enough to power a home and sell some electricity back to the power company. The turbine was made by Proven Energy, a Scottish company.
“So far, it’s great,” said John Nelson, a retired North Shore Community College professor. “Thus far, it has exceeded expectations.”
Not only was the turbine the first residential Massachusetts installation for Nexamp, Thompson said it was the first to test Gloucester’s new wind turbine ordinance, written following a controversy over a huge turbine proposed by a manufacturing company in one of the city’s industrial parks. He said it took nearly two years to go through the process, but that the project was ultimately approved on a unanimous vote by the Zoning Board of Appeals.
“This is the perfect site and they were the ideal candidates for a wind turbine,” said Thompson. Nexamp was started by Dan Leary, a childhood friend of Thompson’s, and has grown from just a handful of employees installing solar panels to about two dozen people involved in every facet of green technology and energy.
