Auburn wind turbine company presents to town board

By Ashley M. Casey

Staff Writer

The town of Salina is looking to offset its electric bill by installing solar panels or wind turbines on the town landfill.

While Onondaga County is fielding many alternative energy proposals for local municipalities, representatives from Auburn-based Kohilo Wind made a presentation about their services to the Salina Town Board at its Nov. 14 meeting.

Derek Grassman, inventor and CEO of Kohilo Wind, said his company’s turbines differ from traditional wind power in many ways. Kohilo’s turbines are vertical, stackable, quiet and do not require strong wind to generate power. Grassman said his turbines are the first in the world “that will produce power regardless of wind conditions.”

“With traditional windmills, they need 18 to 24 mph. We can run on three or four,” said Tom Warzecha of Kohilo Wind.

In Upstate New York, Kohilo turbines can be found at Destiny USA, SUNY Oswego and the Raymond Corporation in Binghamton. The company also has partnered with energy companies in the Philippines, Brazil and Canada, with its sights set on Colombia and Mexico next. Kohilo also installs solar panels.

Warzecha said Kohilo’s turbines in the Philippines endured 12 typhoons this year with only minimal damage.

“The homes were gone and the turbines were standing,” he said.

“We’ve also been looking at solar for the landfill as well. We see either one as an opportunity to reuse what is basically unusable,” Town Supervisor Mark Nicotra told the Star-Review.

Grassman said if Salina were interested in pursuing wind or solar power, or even a combination of the two, Kohilo would perform a feasibility assessment at no cost to the town.

While no specific proposal is in front of the Salina Town Board just yet, Nicotra said the town does not lack for options for alternative energy sources.

“The CNY Regional Planning Board has basically taken over this process for us because we were getting hammered with three, four energy companies [contacting us] a week,” he said. “Our goal would be to offset all of our electricity costs as much as we can.”