County Executive Greg Edwards presented Innovative Wind Energy awards to Merle Goot Sr., Merle Goot Jr., and Morris Chase, all from the Town of Charlotte. They received awards for construction of small wind turbines on their farms. Attending the presentation were Staff from County of Chautauqua Industrial Development Agency (CCIDA); Tom Fleckenstein, Niagara Wind & Solar; Rodney Weaver, Rural Generation and Wind Inc.; Mark Mayhew, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA); and members of the Goot and Chase families.
Two of the wind turbines were manufactured by XZERES Corporation of Wilsonville, OR, and one manufactured by Bergey Windpower, of Norman, OK. Rural Generation and Wind, Inc. installed the turbines for the Goots and Niagara Wind & Solar installed the turbines on the Chase dairy farm. The installations were partially funded with grants from NYSERDA and the Federal Government.
Edwards said, “This is a great day for our County, the Goots and Chases, the companies that installed the wind towers, and NYS through the efforts of NYSERDA. We have promoted green renewable energy repeatedly in our County. To be here today and see the successfully installed and running small wind turbines is indeed exciting. We are going to work to help others in our county reduce their energy costs with renewable energy projects like we see here today.”
“At my age, I am proud to be a part of something so positive for both the farmers and the community,” said Merle Goot Sr.
Morris Chase said, “We are blessed with good wind in this area, and were able to take advantage of being able to produce our own electric through clean energy. We hope that there will be more wind turbines in the area in the future.”
Bill Daly, from CCIDA, commented, “This is a great lead up for our Chautauqua County Energy Conference and Expo, to be held on Saturday, October 27, at the Clarion Marina and Conference Center, in Dunkirk, from 9am to 4pm. The last presentation of the day will be on small Wind Energy. Mark Mayhew, from NYSERDA, will be moderator of the panel presenting incentives and the process of constructing small wind.”
