Target 11: Tax dollars paid for Pittsburgh-area windmill that didn't work

PITTSBURGH — On a hill in Pine Township, jutting out among the trees, stands a windmill.

“I’ve never seen it in use,” one person told us.

“I think they put it up but it doesn't work,” Alan Groover told Target 11.

In 2008, the township bought it for $160,000.

As part of a Harvest Energy Grant, the state chipped in $60,000.

It was supposed to provide power for a new community center.

However, township supervisors soon discovered a big problem: not enough wind.

“It's hard to believe because it is very windy up here,” Groover said.

Windy, yes, but not enough sustained wind to keep it going.

Township Administrator Scott Anderson told Target 11 that the township did conduct a study before building.

Statement regarding the Township of Pine Wind Turbine:

"The wind turbine was purchased in 2006 and commissioned in 2008 with Township of Pine and grant funds from the Pennsylvania Energy Harvest Grant Program. Everyone involved with the project had the best of intentions for the project and it was installed to coincide with and compliment the construction of the energy efficient Pine Community Center and off-set its operational costs.

Unfortunately the wind turbine did not, and will not, perform as expected at its present location. Therefore the difficult decision to sell the wind turbine was made to alleviate on-going expenditures of tower inspections and insurance for the unit.

The Township utilized its best efforts to recover as much as possible given the age and nature of the equipment."

Without the constant wind, he said it became too costly to maintain.

The generator and the tower had to be inspected every year at a cost of more than $3,000.

Township supervisors tried to sell it.

In 2011, they got a handful of bids in the $10,000 range but that wasn’t enough, so they took it off the market.

Five years later, they put it back on the market.

This time it sold for $8,200, less than the $160,000 they paid for it.

“That's not quite adding up,” said Pine Township taxpayer Julie Grenet. “Not quite.”

“It's a good township. Maybe they just made a little boo boo here,” said Groover.

While taxpayers got stuck with the bill, the windmill will be getting a new lease on life.

It will be dismantled and shipped to a resort in Jamaica, where the new owners said there won’t be a problem generating wind off the ocean.

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